The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Ukraine has opened a case against former Director of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Roman Truba.
"I've got a response to my inquiry lodged with the PGO regarding Roman Truba's unlawful actions. The document states that on December 13 a pretrial investigation into this matter was launched under Article 343 of the Criminal Code (interference with law enforcement officials' activities) and Article 387 of the Criminal Code (disclosure of pretrial investigation data). The case was assigned to the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine," MP from the European Solidarity parliamentary faction Oleksiy Honcharenko said on Facebook on January 13.
Read alsoPossible abuse of power by ex-SBI chief Roman Truba under probe
According to him, tape recordings made in Truba's office, which have recently been made public, prove that the SBI's ex-head had repeatedly violated the law.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada on December 3 passed a draft law to amend certain laws of Ukraine to streamline the SBI's work. Under the law, the SBI's incumbent director and deputies must be fired.
New senior officials of the SBI will be selected by a commission, which will include three members from parliament, three from the president, three from the government. The government's quota will be delegated by international organizations.
In addition, the law provides that, in order to ensure the continuity and effectiveness of pretrial investigations in Maidan cases, investigators of the prosecutor's office and prosecutors could be transferred before January 11, 2020, to the SBI by their consent, without participating in a competition.
On December 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed SBI Director Truba and appointed Iryna Venedyktova as acting director at the Bureau.
