Rui Pinto stays in witness protection after Portugal reverses removal — SkimNews
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- Rui Pinto will remain in witness protection after Portugal's Ministry of Justice suspended the decision to remove him, ruling that the special security programmes commission failed to adequately notify him of grounds for termination or give him a chance to challenge it
- Pinto, 37, was scheduled to leave the programme on Saturday and said the removal ruling put him in a "life-threatening situation"; he now has 10 days to assess a commission risk assessment indicating a low threat to his safety
- Pinto thanked Justice Minister Rita Alarcao Judice on X, calling the commission's original decision a "manifest abuse of power"
- Pinto shared a cache of emails and documents with Der Spiegel in 2018 that triggered investigations into Manchester City's finances; City were recently found guilty of all charges over Premier League financial regulation breaches between 2009-10 and 2017-18 and have appealed
- Pinto entered Portugal's witness protection in 2020 after agreeing to co-operate with authorities; he was previously convicted of illegal access to data and attempted extortion and given a four-year suspended sentence, wearing a bulletproof vest at his 2020 trial
- Earlier this year, Pinto was acquitted of 241 counts of illegally accessing email accounts belonging to Portuguese sports bodies including Benfica
Why it matters: Pinto's leaks were the catalyst for the Premier League's case against Manchester City, which resulted in the club being found guilty of all 115 financial regulation charges — a verdict the club is appealing. His removal from witness protection would have signaled Portugal no longer viewed him as needing state cover despite his central role exposing the scandal; the reversal keeps him protected while the procedural challenge plays out, preserving the integrity of the source behind one of football's most consequential investigations.
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