Crime · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Rui Pinto Loses Portugal Witness Protection After Death Threats
Rui Pinto will be removed from Portugal's witness protection on October 10. He has received multiple death threats and fears assassination attempts.
Whether authorities assess him as low risk.
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BBC
“the decision to terminate his participation in the programme on 10 October has put him in a ‘life-threatening situation’.”Read the original ↗
The Mirror foregrounds that authorities deemed Pinto low risk, while the BBC and Guardian foreground his claimed assassination danger.
Pinto loses protection
Rui Pinto, the Football Leaks founder, is set to lose witness protection in Portugal after Portuguese authorities terminated his participation in the programme on 10 October. Pinto posted on X that the decision to terminate his participation in the programme on 10 October has put him in a "life-threatening situation" and said it left him with no alternative but to relocate to an undisclosed location for an indefinite period because of "multiple death threats" and "the serious risk of an assassination attempt".
Pinto’s legal team said that in a few days, without being heard beforehand, he would lose the protected, confidential residence assigned to him and be forced to find new housing urgently, with no guarantee that police protection would continue. The BBC reported that it had approached the Commission for the Protection of Victims of Crimes in Portugal for comment, as Pinto’s disclosures helped trigger scrutiny of Manchester City’s finances and a Premier League investigation into the club’s financial rules.B
Threats and assault
Pinto said the timing and circumstances of the decision to end his witness protection left him facing "the serious risk of an assassination attempt against me" and he said he would relocate within the next few days to an undisclosed location for an indefinite period. Pinto wrote on X that on 30 September 2026, just hours after the verdict officially confirming Manchester City’s guilt, the commission responsible for Portugal’s witness protection programme informed him of its decision to terminate his participation and withdraw his police protection.
Pinto’s lawyers said ending his protection would leave him "more vulnerable than at any point since 2020" and they described the circumstances as a "failure to respect the rule of law". Pinto’s legal team also said the threats against him were not theoretical because he was assaulted in Lisbon last April, and it said his revelations implicated powerful individuals with substantial resources while many resulting legal proceedings were still ongoing.
After the City verdict
Manchester City were found guilty of all charges relating to breaches of Premier League financial regulations between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, and the league said City used "sham" commercial contracts to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than 900 million pounds. Pinto’s legal team said the programme would end on Oct 10 and argued that the decision leaves him at heightened risk, noting legal proceedings stemming from the leaks remained ongoing, including the recent Manchester City case.
Pinto described himself as a whistleblower, but the BBC said he was convicted in Portugal of offences including illegal access to data and attempted extortion and given a four-year suspended sentence. BPinto’s lawyers said the decision to end his participation in the witness protection programme left him at heightened risk, noting legal proceedings stemming from the leaks remained ongoing, including the case against Manchester City, and Pinto set up a fundraising page to help him "survive this serious situation".