Rui Pinto plans appeal as Portugal moves to end witness protection

Rui Pinto, the computer hacker behind Football Leaks, says he fears for his safety after being told his participation in Portugal's witness protection programme will end on 10 October. BBC Sport reported that the 37-year-old disclosed the decision on Friday and said he would move to an undisclosed location for an indefinite period.

Pinto said he had received multiple death threats and believed he faced a risk of assassination. Those are his stated concerns, rather than an independently established assessment of the threat. According to BBC Sport, he entered the protection programme in 2020 after agreeing to work with the authorities and supply files gathered through Football Leaks.

His lawyers announced plans on Friday for an administrative appeal intended to suspend the decision, according to reporting by Portuguese news agency Lusa published by Observador. They said they had already asked the Ministry of Justice to reconsider, disclose the evidence behind the reassessment of risk, hear Pinto's account and ensure that protection continued. They reported receiving no response at that point.

The commission's written decision offered a different assessment. As reported by Lusa, it cited a lack of commitment by Pinto to complying with the programme and a reassessment by Portugal's PSP police that placed the risk at a low level. The order set 10 October as the effective date for ending his special security arrangements.

The lawyers said the change would cost Pinto his confidential, protected accommodation and leave him urgently needing another home, without a guarantee of continued police protection. They also said he had been assaulted in Lisbon in April. Their statement connected his security concerns to legal proceedings arising from his disclosures that remain ongoing, including the Manchester City case.

BBC Sport said it had approached Portugal's Commission for the Protection of Victims of Crimes for comment. Pinto has described himself as a whistleblower, but his record also includes a Portuguese conviction for offences including illegal access to data and attempted extortion, for which he received a four-year suspended sentence. Earlier this year, he was acquitted in a separate trial involving 241 counts of illegally accessing email accounts.