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Public organization
"Central Anticorruption Committee"

Secret operations of the Security Service or ordinary corruption?

The Security Service of Ukraine is the stronghold of the country’s peace and an organization that must deal with ensuring national security, and, consequently, the security of all Ukrainian citizens. No doubt this work is carried out and sometimes even too active. Another thing is that while the Ukrainians from the media learn about the next feats and simple routine affairs of the SBU, somewhere in the inaccessible to the common people offices are completely different matters. And this is not a discussion of methods of combating banditry, but rumored to be directly related to it, organization, participation, protection, and corruption and abuse of authority, such as torture of prisoners, use of official position and other privileges.

It’s sad that many such rumors are actually being confirmed. But even more sad is the fact that, the farther away, the more scandals are erupting, the attitude towards which, often as the main figurant is precisely the Security Service of Ukraine. The latter, however, has always been known as an organization that provides not only the security of the country, but also the interests of wealthy people influencing Ukrainian politics, business and so on. Such a scheme has successfully lined up in the last years of the Soviet Union, where the KGB was feared not only by dissidents, but also by cooperators, and journalists – in general, by all who were affected by its interests. In the inheritance from the KGB, the SBU took all the “best” itself, afterwards there were another “improvements” in the methods of its work, the peak of which occurred during the reign of Leonid Kuchma, when the SBU finally turned into an office serving the interests of the clan. It is difficult to say that many changes for the better happened with the arrival of Viktor Yushchenko, and of course the years of Viktor Yanukovych’s government also left their deep imprint on the methods of work of this agency.

However, what is happening in the Security Service in recent years, can not be completely compared. It would seem that with the advent of the people’s power and the restructuring of the state model, the choice of a new vector of development and the transition to European and democratic values, the agency also had to change for the better. Nevertheless, due to a number of reasons, these changes occurred in a diametrically opposite direction. The SBU has never been accused of maintaining secret prisons, where prisoners and suspects have been severely tortured, so many corruption scandals have never appeared in the discussion of the public, as has been happening for two and a half years. Never before, SBU officials took part in disassembling for the protection of illegal business. All this, to a great regret, the Ukrainians have the opportunity to observe today. Of course, we are talking only about what has become the official property of the public, but even this is enough to terrify the harsh reality. Often there is a feeling that the SBU’s employees are not at all those whom they should hope for, but those who need to be feared. Especially this attitude of ordinary citizens to the SBU is formed in the light of the scandal associated with torture and secret prisons of the SBU.

The latest shocking data of two well-known international human rights organizations, later officially recognized by the United Nations, are partially confirmed, in part denied even today, despite the irrefutable evidence base that was presented by human rights defenders. So from the recently published report of the Assistant to the UN Secretary General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonovic, it follows that the Security Service of Ukraine continues to hide from its representatives of the United Nations its prisons for detainees and facts of torture. The report also contains data on hundreds of cases when SBU officers carried out illegal detentions, tortured people simultaneously with the militia, also referred to in the report of Šimonović. As one example, Simonovic quotes the words of one of the detainees, who, after using an electric shock and numerous blows with a hammer, was forced to admit that he was a member of the armed group.

In general, the report Shimonovich only concerns the situation in the zone of military operations in the Donbass and front-line regions. At the same time, it does not mention information on the existence of such prisons throughout Ukraine, as already claimed by local human rights defenders. And some prisons do not limit the new methods of work of the SBU. Or rather, not so much work as earnings, for example, on the cover of smuggling, as explained earlier this month by Deputy Minister for Displaced Persons Georgy Tuka. So in his twitter, he posted information about exchanges between smugglers who illegally transported goods to uncontrolled territory and military APU, who managed to detain eight violators. However, on arrival at the scene of the shootout of the SBU, according to Tuki, the APU refused to hand over the detainees to them, accusing them of involvement of their colleagues in smuggling. However, very soon the deputy minister refused his words and given the methods of work of the Security Service, this is not surprising.

Indicative, including for Tuka, is the persecution of members of some military formations, including volunteers from “Aidar”, “Tornado” and so on. The latter, as is known, felt themselves too self-confident and openly accused some structures of involvement in smuggling. Today, many of them are the subjects of high-profile criminal cases, which, according to their supporters, is an indicative revenge for all who dare to expose corruption in power and the country’s power structures. However, in some cases, there is no need to expose anyone. Separate officials “burn” themselves, for example, arrested for a bribe this summer, the first deputy head of Kiev city and regional government of the SBU Filimonova. He was on such a high leadership position in the structure of the Security Service, but was known for his connections with the Donetsk Yarema, Mogilev, Belozubov.

But colleagues of Filimonov not to collapse the system built even carry out sweeps among their own, in which the former deputy chairman of the Security Service recently made a sensational confession, he is also the head of the head of K, Viktor Trepak. In his statement, he reveals some details of the cadre cleansing, which has to do with the notorious “diamond prosecutors”. In particular, Trepak shared information that the SBU held a number of layoffs of employees who were unlucky to light up in this case. For example, one of them is an employee who conducted a search of the former deputy prosecutor of the Kiev region Alexander Korniytsa. According to Trepak, SBU applies the same scheme used by former Prosecutor General Shokin. In this case, according to the general, the alliance of Shokin and the new head of the Main Directorate of “K” Demchina continues to be preserved.

From all this it follows that today the SBU in its work is guided not only by concern for national security, but also very actively engaged in dark affairs, not only not in its competence, but also being criminal. All this looks sad against the backdrop of the hopeless hopes of the participants in the revolution for building a true democratic and uncorrupted state where the security forces, unlike their predecessors, will fight not for citizens but for their interests, as well as for crime, and not for control over them.

The information is taken from: http://job-sbu.org/taynyie-operatsii-sbu-ili-obyiknovennaya-korruptsiya-38803.html