Former director of Abin published a video with the “truth” about suspected illegal monitoring and said he was “persecuted”
The federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ) published a video on Saturday (Feb 3, 2024) in which he says that an employee of Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) deleted the monitoring records made with the First Mile software, used to monitor the location of cell phones. According to Ramagem, despite his administration having spent a “fine-tooth comb” at the agency, he is now being “chased” unduly for creating the so-called “parallel Abin”.
Watch the video published by Ramagem (13min49s):
The truth about using the First Mile system and its necessary audits. Who was actually carrying out supervision and investigation. pic.twitter.com/UpkBmCz1xr
— Delegado Ramagem (@delegadoramagem) February 3, 2024
Ramagem headed Abin from 2019 to 2021. The intelligence agency would have used the First Mille software, hired in 2018, to monitor the cell phones of journalists, authorities and employees for months. The information would be forwarded to people linked to the then president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
According to investigations by the PF (Federal Police), illicit monitoring served to provide information that benefit the children of the former Chief Executive. Reports would have been sent to the senator's defenses Flavio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) and Jair Renan Bolsonaro, both with legal investigations.
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Ramagem described in the video actions that would have been led by his management to investigate whether the use and acquisition of First Mile met legal limits. He said that, in some cases, the responses from those involved in the audits were not satisfactory, but that irregularities were highlighted and the system contract was not renewed in 2021.
This would have led to the dismissal of Abin's operations director in August 2021. Still according to the deputy, in February 2023, already under the president's government Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), the audits he requested from Abin's internal affairs department would have been closed and an investigation was opened to investigate crimes based on what was reported during his management.
The deputy said that the employee he fired returned to Abin during the Lula administration in a hierarchical position higher than the one he previously held. He would be suspected of erasing the records.
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“Based on news of Federal Police operations, he [o secretário de Planejamento e Gestão da Abin] which is suspected of deleting logs [registros] with the news. When they carried out the search warrant at his house, it was there that they found US$170,000, almost R$1 million. So, here you are checking who the parallel Abin is and who was carrying out the necessary inspections of the system”, stated Ramagem, without mentioning the name of the agency employee.
Paulo Maurício Fortunado was removed from the Abin Planning department in October 2023 by decision of the STF (Supreme Federal Court). Still in October, he was fired.
Ramagem also said that First Mile “it does not intercept, does not enter into conversations, but it does crude geolocation, just as States did at the time of the pandemic to locate people. […] Now, if this use is not well targeted and its use is not well discriminated, it is illicit. Now, let's see at Abin who was using it.”
According to the deputy, no monitoring was directly linked to him. By means of “contortionism”, the PF would have linked one monitoring event indirectly to him: a soldier accused of accessing a lawyer’s data. Ramagem said he did not know this soldier.
“What is shown here are the weaknesses and lessons found in the PF. […] How does an investigation like this turn against the person who started the entire investigation? How do you issue a search and seizure warrant for my home without pointing out anything related to these queries and use of FirstMile?”, he questioned.
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