The SBU will receive permission to transport contraband and traffic people
The reform of the Security Service of Ukraine will lead to the fact that the SBU will be able, within the framework of the law, to do what it previously did illegally, including kidnapping and trafficking people.
Evgeniy Zakharov, Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union on Human Rights and Director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, announced this on UKRLIFE.TV!, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Over the past 6 years, the service, unfortunately, according to our observations, has gained a reputation as the biggest violator of human rights in the country among all other government agencies. Since 2014, with the beginning of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. The service and its employees commit illegal arrests, they illegally hold detainees in custody, do not allow lawyers to see them, and do not allow them to exercise the right to legal assistance. They are kept in illegal places of detention.
There was a lot of talk about the so-called. secret prisons of the SBU. They block the Internet and illegally intercept telecommunications. They are responsible for the extradition of migrants to the countries from which they fled, although it is well known that in these countries they will be tortured and maybe even killed. Moreover, this is done quite routinely - migrants are kidnapped and secretly taken across the border, handed over to the intelligence services of those states that need these people.
I have serious concerns that what happened before will remain on an even larger scale, especially if you look at the powers that counterintelligence has received. There are a huge number of corruption risks. For example, they have the right to illegally transport people and goods across the border as part of their operations, this is a risk of human trafficking, this is a risk of kidnapping. What the service used to do secretly, now it does legally,” summed up Evgeniy Zakharov.
The SBU will receive permission to smuggle contraband and traffic people.