Attorney Bourdon in interview: "In Germany, Pinto would not be in prison"

For almost six months, Rui Pinto has been in custody in Lisbon. In the coming days, another detention trial will take place, during which it will be decided whether he may leave the prison.

Pinto, who for years worked under the pseudonym "John", was the deciding factor behind the football leaks. He has given the SPIEGEL since 2016 confidential documents from the football industry. The SPIEGEL shared the data with its partners from the research network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), which resulted in more than 800 revelatory articles.

From our point of view, Pinto is a whistleblower: he is a person who, under personal risks, played a key role in revealing grievances. The Lisbon football club Sporting Portugal and the sports law firm Doyen Sports accuse him of cybercrime, Doyen in addition to the attempted extortion. Both allegations date from 2015, and in January 2019 Portugal obtained a European arrest warrant. Pinto was arrested in Hungary and sent to Portugal on 21 March. Pinto denies the allegations.

SPIEGEL repeatedly asked the Portuguese judiciary to interview Pinto in recent months. All requests were rejected. His French lawyer William Bourdon is in constant contact with Pinto. In an interview with SPIEGEL, he now talks about Pinto's terms of detention and the arguments he uses to get his client released.

SPIEGEL: Mr Bourdon, her client Rui Pinto has been in prison in Lisbon for almost six months. Why was no charge made against him?

Bourdon: That's a peculiarity of Portuguese law. The duration of detention, unlike other European legal systems, is not part of the law. But it is not common practice to detain anyone without charge for so long. Moreover, it is fully in line with the expectations and demands of the European Parliament, the European Commission and civil society: there is a consensus that whistleblowers should be better protected.

SPIEGEL: The arrest warrant executed against Pinto related to events that were reported to have occurred in 2015. Is there a new state of the investigation?

Bourdon: We do not know that. The investigations are kept more or less secret in Portugal. Here in France, it would be easy for us lawyers to get access to files. But in Portugal there are restrictions that restrict the work of lawyers.

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Rui Pinto

SPIEGEL: Portuguese media reported that Pinto is now being accused of other crimes. For example, he is said to have hacked politicians and high-profile law firms and stolen data from them. What do you say to these allegations?

Bourdon: At the moment I can not give any details about these allegations. For European arrest warrants, the "principle of specialty" applies. This means that the issued arrest warrant must contain very specific allegations, not general allegations. On the basis of exactly these specific allegations may then be determined. In Pinto's case, the original arrest warrant was very narrow. We wonder if the Portuguese authorities knew of any further allegations right from the start. If so, why did not Portugal include these allegations in the arrest warrant? There is a suspicion that the specialty principle may have been violated.

SPIEGEL: Is Pinto in exchange with the authorities or is he silent?

Bourdon: As far as I know, there has only been a short survey so far. We expect an extensive inquiry and that the charge will be delivered to Pinto. Pinto has confirmed that he is ready to cooperate. He opened the door, but the Portuguese authorities have not gone through yet. This could lead to a historical paradox: players, agents and football clubs have already been and will continue to face huge fines in the future, there are criminal investigations in which criminal processes in the world of football are revealed. At the same time, Pinto is still in prison and suspects, whose criminal liability should be clarified in Portugal, are spared. That's absurd.

SPIEGEL: Under what circumstances is Pinto imprisoned? Does he have contact with fellow prisoners?

Bourdon: No, he's isolated, but he's treated well by the guards. When we last visited him, he was fine. But even though Pinto always shows the same courage, he shows exhaustion and fear in his eyes. He feels his situation unfair. I know that he is also supported by other detainees. He can not see them, but they call him encouraging words.

SPIEGEL: Are there any alternatives to his imprisonment?

Bourdon: You could commit him not to leave Portugal and be available to the judge. There is absolutely no risk of Pinto intimidating or endangering investigations, as is the case with other suspects. In Germany, France, England or Italy, Pinto would never have been imprisoned on the basis of these allegations.

SPIEGEL: The French prosecutor wanted to include Pinto in January in a kind of witness protection program. Is there still an aspiration?

Bourdon: No, that was planned, but failed with his arrest.

SPIEGEL: To date, neither the French nor any other investigators have visited Pinto in prison in Lisbon?

Bourdon: No. There was a visit from Russian authorities who tried to accuse him. But Pinto has refused to cooperate with Russia.

SPIEGEL: While Pinto is in custody in Portugal following Doyen Sports' allegations, a lawsuit was filed against Doyen in Spain. It's about tax evasion and money laundering. Does this process affect Pinto's situation?

Bourdon: Anything that helps make Pinto's information valuable to European judges is, of course, welcome. And it is good news that Spain is making progress, as the authorities initially seemed rather cautious in this case. Now things are accelerating.

SPIEGEL: Many people have expressed doubts that a hacker could actually be considered a whistleblower. Has Rui Pinto acquired the football leaks material through hacking?

Bourdon: It is not the job of a lawyer to explain his client's methods. The football leaks material comes from multiple sources, not just from Pinto. As a lawyer, I will not tell what was hacked and what was not.

SPIEGEL: Can this question affect the course of the proceedings?

Bourdon: Yes. Of course, hacking or criminal prosecution could be an obstacle to becoming a whistleblower. But we must not forget that these legal questions are new and are just beginning to be defined. For example, Antoine Deltour, the informer behind Luxleaks, was twice charged and even convicted for illegal access to a computer system. In the end, he was acquitted because the Luxembourg judge felt that Deltour met the conditions required by the European Court of Human Rights to be considered a whistleblower. Another example is the Whistleblower of the Panama Papers: Thanks to his information, more than one billion euros could be collected from various tax authorities. But as far as I know, he was not an employee of the affected Panamanian companies.

At the legal level, the next step would be to extend the protection of whistleblowers, whether hackers or not, to those who reveal major threats to the public. Since September 2016, a French law already allows this in certain cases.

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SPIEGEL: What are the upcoming weeks and months for Pinto?

Bourdon: Indictment - If no charge is made, he will be released. A prosecutor of the European judicial authority Eurojust could visit Portugal. We lawyers will be in contact with EU organizations and the United Nations Special Rapporteur, who is responsible for the protection of whistleblowers. Of course, in the coming weeks we will also officially ask the Portuguese for the freedom of Rui Pinto.

SPIEGEL: In the coming days there will be another detention exam date. Do you think that Pinto could be free by the end of the month?

Bourdon: I'm a practicing pessimist.