Rui Pinto Loses His Witness Protection on 10 October, and the Justice Minister Promises an Answer to His Appeal Before Then

Rui Pinto, the hacker behind Football Leaks, is due to lose the state protection he has lived under since August 2020 on 10 October, and the Justice Minister says she will decide on the appeals against that decision before the date arrives.

"I am receiving the various requests. They are arriving at my office now. We are analysing them with great care," Rita Alarcão Júdice told reporters on Saturday in Aveiro, at the close of a registry services congress. "If there has been any irregularity, or any procedure that was not the most correct, it will naturally be weighed."

What was decided, and why

The decision comes from the Comissão de Programas Especiais de Segurança (CPES), the body that runs Portugal's special security programmes for protected witnesses. Its order, made public on Friday after meetings on 8 June and 9 July, ends the programme for "protected witness Rui Pedro Gonçalves Pinto" with effect from 10 October 2026.

The commission gave two grounds, according to the order as reported by Lusa: what it called the witness's "lack of commitment" to complying with the programme, and a reassessment report by the PSP that concluded his risk level was low.

Under the programme, Pinto has had a house under police protection, documents in a false identity, free transport and a subsistence allowance. He entered it after leaving pre-trial detention and agreeing to cooperate with the authorities.

His lawyers' case

Pinto's lawyers say he was told on Wednesday that the programme would end, and that he will lose his confidential home "within a few days, without having been heard first, as the law requires." They have asked the ministry to reconsider, to disclose the risk reassessment the decision rests on and to guarantee his protection continues, and say they will file an administrative appeal with suspensive effect.

"The threats against him are not merely theoretical: last April, he was assaulted in Lisbon," the lawyers said in a note. Pinto has since said he will move to an undisclosed location and has launched a fundraising campaign to pay for it.

The anti-corruption association Frente Cívica has also written to the minister, arguing that the decision breaches the law and asking her to stop it taking effect and to order an independent inquiry. Its letter says the timing "feeds a toxic suspicion" of retaliation, because the Judicial Police is itself under scrutiny over how evidence in Pinto's case was gathered. The national director of the PJ, Luís Neves, is under investigation over what he told a court about wiretaps in that case, and parliament has set up an inquiry into his tenure, which André Ventura will chair.

The British angle

The decision also comes soon after an independent commission found Manchester City guilty of more than 100 breaches of Premier League financial rules, a case that traces back to documents first published through Football Leaks. Frente Cívica says that ruling alone raises the risk to Pinto. The Guardian reported on Saturday that Pinto has offered to help British authorities, in return for police protection. Once he leaves the Portuguese programme, he will be free to cooperate with other countries' authorities, as he has done at times with French, German and Belgian investigators.

His record in court

Pinto was convicted in the main Football Leaks case in September 2023 and given a four-year suspended sentence for attempted extortion, aggravated violation of correspondence and illegitimate access. In November 2023 a French court gave him a six-month suspended sentence for accessing Paris Saint-Germain emails. This year he was acquitted of 241 offences in a second Football Leaks trial.

The minister has not said what options she has, beyond reviewing the procedure. The date to watch is Saturday 10 October.