Abin employees go to court to remove director indicted by the PF

Amid the worsening internal crisis affecting Abin, employees of the intelligence agency decided to take legal action to remove the agency's director general, Luiz Fernando Corrêa . On another front, they began to suggest a strike. The initiatives were approved at a meeting held on Tuesday 24.

The deliberations come a week after the Federal Police indicted part of the current leadership of Abin for allegedly attempting to obstruct investigations into the wiretapping scheme set up at the agency under Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Côrrea is one of the targets of the PF's final report, sent to the Supreme Federal Court, where an investigation into the case is underway.

The director general is accused of the crimes of obstructing the investigation, prevarication and coercion during the course of the process. “The members chose to put an end to the general degradation of ABIN and clearly expressed their desire to react and defend our institution,” says a note from the executive board of Intelis, which represents the category of intelligence professionals.

According to the workers, the strike notice seeks to confront what they consider to be a process of emptying Abin. Among the points raised are the lack of dialogue with the government, the paralysis of strategic functions and the concern with the control of confidential information, which today would be under the responsibility of other instances of the Executive, such as the Federal Police.

“With the strike notice approved, the entity will present a set of formal demands. If there is no satisfactory response within the stipulated deadline, a new assembly will be called to deliberate on more incisive actions, such as the adoption of standard operations and the launch of the strike,” states a text distributed internally among employees.

The investigation into the so-called “parallel Abin” began in 2023. According to the PF, the illegal monitoring at the agency involved the use of the spyware FirstMile and targeted journalists, lawyers, parliamentarians and ministers of the STF. In addition to Corrêa, 35 other people were indicted for involvement in the case.

Since the accusation against him came to light, agency employees have been demanding his dismissal, but President Lula (PT) has signaled to interlocutors that he will keep him in office. Any accusation against Corrêa would be the “cutting line” regarding his continued leadership of Abin, as occurred with former Communications Minister Juscelino Filho (União-MA).