Human rights activist: The new bill on the SBU gives the intelligence service unlimited powers
If bill 3196-“On the Security Service of Ukraine” is adopted, the SBU will receive virtually unlimited powers, will be removed from state control and will be able to abuse its position by violating human rights.
The director of the Kharkov human rights group, Yevgeny Zakharov, stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He noted that the SBU will have to be reformed one way or another.
“We cannot leave the situation as it is today. Today we have a stalemate. There is a bill that is mercilessly criticized.
On the one hand, they say that it should not be accepted. On the other hand, they want to pass it, and all our Western allies support it, despite the fact that they themselves say that this bill contains quite serious violations of human rights. But for them, the long-awaited reform of the SBU is more important than human rights.
Their motives are clear; the SBU cannot be left in the form in which it exists today. This is an old, unreformed intelligence agency, unchecked, unpunished, with the power to investigate crimes it considers its own, using those powers for its own benefit.
At the same time, one cannot agree to adopt such a bill. Human rights organizations mostly oppose it. They are supported in this by the monitoring mission of the EU High Commissioner for Rights in Ukraine.
Therefore, the situation is stalemate. We can’t leave everything like this, we need at least some solution, at least in one direction or the other, for the situation to change. If this bill is passed despite all the warnings, then efforts can be concentrated on changing the law that has already been passed.
If it is still not accepted, taking into account the serious mistakes that exist there, the human rights violations that are contained therein, then we urgently need to work on a new bill, eliminate the shortcomings that exist, and submit it again,” said human rights activist
The main problem is that the bill significantly expands the powers of the Security Service of Ukraine, which leads to human rights violations. In particular, the SBU receives the authority to temporarily restrict access to websites without establishing a proper procedure for clear grounds and deadlines for this. Contrary to the Constitution, the SBU receives unlimited access to confidential personal information and receives virtually uncontrolled access to communications.
“In all these three areas, the SBU will have more powers than the Russian FSB. This is completely unacceptable. Counterintelligence, which has been removed from the scope of the intelligence law, receives enormous additional powers, which it will use at its own discretion,” the human rights activist said.
It will be impossible to challenge the actions of the SBU in court, given the secret nature of counterintelligence measures. The reasons for these counterintelligence measures are simply endless. Although they are carried out by court order, the court must grant permission for them no later than 6 hours from the receipt of the petition.
A judge can refuse to grant permission only in case of violation of territorial jurisdiction, that is, this procedure will actually not work.
“These powers will be used without any judicial review. I believe that it is simply impossible for any of the special services of a democratic country to have such powers without a clear definition of the situation when they can be used,” the human rights activist said.
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