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1. I requested in the defense presented by my lawyers to transmit to this court everything that seems relevant to the discovery of the truth in response to the accusation against me.
2. I am here in this court in a strange situation: on the one hand, as a defendant and, on the other, as a protected witness integrated in a program of the Portuguese State.
3. As I always said, I don’t consider myself a hacker. I am a whistleblower or whistleblower because I made public, in total good faith, a lot of information of manifest national and international public interest that, otherwise, would never be known.
4. I was surprised and outraged by what I discovered and what I understood that I should reveal. Initially through the website Football leaks, but also through collaboration with media around the world.
5. My own work of documentary analysis and direct assistance to journalists is, in my opinion, work that has contributed to strengthening freedom of expression.
6. I also collaborated with several foreign authorities, and I am actively collaborating with the Portuguese authorities, who encourage me in this collaboration, and I hope to continue doing so in the future.
7. Disclosures of serious wrongdoing and crime are a source of pride for me and not a source of shame. I see today that there are important criminal investigations that have been opened thanks to these revelations and I am confident that there will be many more.
8. I note that, in recent years, national law, European law and international law increasingly recognize the importance of the contribution of whistleblowers in the discovery of various illegal activities that profoundly harm citizens and the States themselves. And for that, the whistleblowers they are increasingly protected around the world.
9. I was the object of a campaign of slander, defamation and threats in order to divert the attention of public opinion and the judicial system from the criminal activities that I revealed and that persist. But I’m not complaining.
10. I was in prison for almost a year and a half, with seven months of total isolation, which was a difficult period, but also one of great reflection. My work as whistleblower it’s finished.
11. At this point, I just want to reaffirm that nothing I did was for money and that I never received money for the information I disclosed.
12. Following the advice of my attorneys, I limit myself, for now, to making this statement, reserving the right to make statements later.
