Process solution E-mole knows the solution today

This Wednesday, Lisbon’s Central Criminal Court learned of the decision of the E-mole trial, in which former Benfica legal adviser Paulo Gonçalves and court officials José Augusto Silva and Julio Loureiro appear as defendants.

Approximately one year and four months after the start of the trial, on 29 September 2021, former Benfica legal adviser Paulo Gonçalves and court officials José Augusto Silva and Julio Loureiro will finally hear the decision of the court, which was scheduled for 4 November 2022. and was successively rescheduled for 9, 23 and 25 January.

In the final indictments, held on July 13, prosecutor Luis Ribeiro argued that the three defendants should be convicted, although without setting a time limit for the sentences. The Parliament judge then stated that “Julio Loureiro’s performance, along with José Augusto Silva, matched Paulo Gonçalves in exchange for preferential treatment embodied in tickets, invitations, access to the club’s car park and ‘merchandising’.”

“A guilty verdict is awaited,” the prosecutor stressed, noting the “high degree of illegality” and “high requirements of general prevention” in relation to the former legal adviser of the “embodied” and employee José Augusto Silva. As for collaborator Julio Loureiro, Luis Ribeiro suggested that there was a “more limited interference”.

The defense of the defendants rejected most of the crimes they were accused of and demanded an acquittal. For the lawyer of former Benfica manager Thiago Rodríguez Bastos, the E-mole case is “a handful of nothing”, alluding to “forbidden evidence” and an April 2022 statement about the unconstitutionality of the so-called Metadata Law. Constitutional Court.

Rui Pedro Pinheiro, Julio Loureiro’s lawyer, also confirmed the court official’s innocence in this process, stressing that “there is nothing of criminal significance.” Paulo Gomes’ lawyer, José Augusto Silva’s agent, acknowledged a possible conviction but emphasized the nature of the court official and his integration into society.

Paulo Gonçalves, a former legal adviser at SAD do Benfica, is charged with six crimes of breach of secrecy of justice, 21 of breach of secrecy on the part of an employee, nine of unauthorized access, nine of breach of duty of secrecy, co-authorship. , in addition to one offense of active corruption, two offenses of unauthorized access and two violations of the duty of secrecy.

Judicial official Julio Loureiro is charged with the crime of passive corruption, and judicial officer José Augusto Silva is responsible for one crime of passive corruption, six crimes for violation of the secrecy of justice, 21 violations of secrecy by an official, nine for unauthorized access. , nine for breach of duty of secrecy, 28 for illegal access and one for embezzlement.

The E-mole case dates back to 2018, when a deputy accused two court officials, Paulo Gonçalves and Benfica’s SAD, of various crimes. However, in December of that year, the training decision ended with the “embodied” SAD not being brought to trial.