'Football Leaks' hacker faces more than 100 charges

LISBON: Portuguese prosecutors on Thursday brought over 100 charges against the computer hacker linked to the "Football Leaks" revelations that exposed murky dealings across European football.

Rui Pinto, a Portuguese national, faces a total of 147 charges -- including attempted extortion and illegal access to data -- after allegedly publishing confidential documents belonging to football clubs and officials.

"The accused used various computer programmes and digital tools to enter, in an unauthorised and anonymous manner, the computer systems or email boxes and remove content from it," prosecutors said in a statement.

Pinto was extradited from Hungary and has been in detention in Portugal since March 21 after purportedly attempting to blackmail the investment fund Doyen Sports.

He faces a potentially long prison term.

He was accused of demanding between 500,000 euros and one million euros to stop publishing documents he had obtained illegally in the computer systems of Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon.

The hacker says this was part of his attempt to show the dishonesty in football.

Late last month, Hungary accepted a European arrest warrant extension from Portugal´s office of public prosecutions for Pinto.

The public prosecutions office said at the time the move would allow them to broaden their investigation.

Pinto´s lawyers are presenting their client as a "very important European whistleblower".

The "Football Leaks" revelations allowed prosecutors in several countries, including Britain and France, to investigate possible wrongdoing in football.