BRAZIL
Court dismisses coordination of delegate investigated in the Abin case
By determination of the STF, the delegate was removed from his duties in the PF
Published on January 26, 2024 at 8:53 pm
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security dismissed this Friday (26) Federal Police delegate Carlos Afonso Gonçalves from his role as the corporation’s Operational Aviation coordinator. The dismissal was published in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU) and signed by the department’s executive secretary, Diego Galdino.
On Thursday (25), Carlos Afonso was removed from office by order of the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes for having been the target of the operation that investigates the use of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) to illegally monitor authorities during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The dismissed delegate held one of the management positions at Abin and was named in the investigations. According to the investigation being processed by the Supreme Court, Carlos Afonso was part of the agency’s “senior management core” and would work together with the then general director Alexandre Ramagem, who was also the target of the operation.
According to the investigations, Ramagem, police officers and PF delegates who were assigned to Abin, in addition to the agency’s employees, would have participated in a criminal organization to illegally monitor public authorities. The case is known as parallel Abin.
Illegal monitoring occurred, according to investigations, through the use of the First Mile spy program, purchased by the agency in 2018. Produced by an Israeli cyber defense company, the equipment allows monitoring the steps of chosen targets through the cell phone location.
Agência Brasil seeks contact with Carlos Afonso’s defense.
On Thursday, after the operation began, Bolsonaro made no comments related to the operation on social media, but published an old video in which Ramagem reports that the spy program was purchased during the administration of former president Michel Temer.
Ramagem classified the operation as “persecution” and stated that he never had the passwords for the monitoring system.
