Rui Pinto is under more threat now than at any time in the past six years, his lawyers have claimed, in a plea to have his witness protection reinstated.
Pinto, the whistleblower whose Football Leaks documents prompted the entire Premier League investigation into Manchester City, has been in a secret location ever since 2020 but, in what has been described as “an act of state terrorism”, that protection is about to be removed next week.
His representatives are furious at a decision that comes at a crucial juncture in a case first launched in 2018 after the German newspaper Der Spiegel published allegations of financial rule breaking that were based on Pinto’s Football Leaks documents.
Pinto was informed on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the independent commission published a devastating verdict against City, that he would lose his witness protection on Saturday, October 10. It means that he will lose his confidential residence and must find new housing within the next eight days.
“His situation is now critical,” said a joint statement from his Portuguese and French legal team. “The threats against him are not merely theoretical; he was assaulted in Lisbon last April. His revelations implicated powerful figures with vast resources, and many resulting legal proceedings are still ongoing, as evidenced by the decision handed down just days ago by the Premier League’s independent commission regarding Manchester City.
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