Court dismisses PF delegate investigated in the Abin case from coordination

The Ministry of Justice and Public Security dismissed this Friday (26) Federal Police delegate Carlos Afonso Gonçalves from his role as coordinator of the corporation’s Operational Aviation, the sector responsible for the PF’s aerial actions. According to information from Brazil Agencythe dismissal was published in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU) and signed by the department’s executive secretary, Diego Galdino.

Carlos Afonso was removed from office by order of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), for having been the target of the operation that investigates the use of geolocation tools on cell phones and tablets to monitor politicians, judges, among other people, without judicial authorization at the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin).

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.

“The internal investigations, as proven by the Federal Police, carried out regarding the use of the technological solution at Abin, would have been obstructed by interference from “then delegates”, identified as Alexandre Ramagem Rodrigues (former general director of Abin), and Carlos Afonso Gonçalves Gomes Coelho (former Secretary of Planning and Management and former deputy director)”, says the PF in a report sent to the STF and released by CNN Brazil.

The PF action against Ramagem took place this Thursday morning (25). This is the Close Surveillance operation, an offshoot of the Last Mile action, launched in October last year to investigate the use of geolocation tools on cell phones and tablets to monitor politicians, judges, among other people, without judicial authorization. In an interview with CNN Brasil, the deputy called the investigation a “salad of narratives to assassinate reputation”.

The operation against the federal deputy is being criticized by the opposition for, once again, targeting a parliamentarian active in Congress and who is allied with former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The PL’s national president, Valdemar Costa Neto, considered the operation as a “persecution because of Bolsonaro” and a “lack of authority from the National Congress”. The former president defended Ramagem and said that the operation is “relentless persecution”.