“There is a serious risk of an assassination attempt against me”

The Portuguese Rui Pintothe man who uncovered various scandals in football through the so-called Football Leaksannounced that he was moving to an unknown location due to the danger to his life after losing his status as a protected witness, according to Jáquer himself.

Through a message posted on his X account on Friday night, I paint He said that on Wednesday the commission responsible for Portugal’s witness protection program informed him of its decision to end his participation in the program and withdraw his police protection.

“Which knowingly exposes me to a situation that endangers my life. Given the circumstances, I have no choice but to move, in the coming days, to an undisclosed location for an indefinite period of time, due to the multiple death threats I have received and the serious risk of an assassination attempt against me,” he wrote.

In addition, he announced that he has launched a fundraising campaign and asked for the collaboration of his followers.

In a previous statement, Pinto’s lawyers confirmed the end of protection and asked the Portuguese authorities to reconsider their decision, since “many of the judicial processes arising from his (Pinto’s) revelations are still ongoing, as demonstrated by the decision handed down just a few days ago by the independent commission of the Premier League in relation to Manchester City.”

In this sense, the jaquer’s defense announced that it would file an appeal against this decision.

Football Leaks was a massive leak of confidential documents started in 2015 that revealed contracts, transfers and financial operations of clubs, players and agents in European football and led to investigations in several countries.

It affected clubs across Europe, including Manchester City, accused this week of more than 100 counts of financial infringements, as well as PSG, among others.

Pinto was sentenced in Portugal in 2023 to four years in suspended prison for several crimes related to illegal access to emails and computer systems, as well as attempted extortion.

In France he also received a six-month suspended prison sentence in 2023 for illegally accessing PSG emails. Later, in 2026, he was acquitted in another trial related to Football Leaks in which he faced 241 crimes.