Zelensky replaces Ukraine's SBI director
KYIV. Dec 27 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed Roman Truba as director of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI), appointing Iryna Venediktova as its acting director.
Respective decrees, dated December 27, were posted on the president's official website.
On December 24, Zelensky signed a law that strengthens the powers of the director of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) and allows transfers of investigators and prosecutors investigating the Maidan cases to the SBI without mandatory competitions. The law was passed in the Verkhovna Rada on December 3. In view of the significant changes in the powers of the SBI director, the document terminates the powers of Truba and his deputies and starts the process to relaunch the body.
Truba became head of the SBI after the commission on the competition for the relevant post recommended appointing him director of the agency in November 2017. Fifth president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko issued a decree appointing Truba SBI director on November 22, 2017.
Venediktova is a member of the Servant of the People faction and the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy and Justice. She was Number 3 on the Servant of the People list in the 2019 extraordinary parliamentary elections.