[Saba Sports News] According to British media reports, Rui Pinto, the hacker famous for the Football Leaks revelations who exposed suspicious dealings in world football, was cleared of all charges in his second trial in Portugal on Wednesday, despite having been convicted of similar offences previously. The 37-year-old defendant had been on trial since January 2025, facing 241 counts of illegally accessing email accounts belonging to multiple Portuguese sports organisations including Benfica, as well as law firms, local judges and tax authorities. After ruling the charges invalid, the court dismissed the case, on the grounds that the matters covered by the allegations had already been tried and convicted against Pinto back in September 2023. At that time, he was handed a four-year suspended prison sentence for a string of cybercrimes and attempted extortion targeting a sports investment fund.
The editor believes that during his first trial, Pinto admitted to obtaining millions of documents through illegal means and began publishing them online at the end of 2015. From 2015 to 2018, Pinto shared 18.6 million documents online and with a European newspaper alliance, with these media outlets publishing explosive revelations that sent shockwaves through the football world.