Law-enforcement agency to investigate staff over leak of activist's private photos
The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) will thoroughly check the information disseminated in the media regarding the publication of private photos of one of the defendants in the criminal proceedings, the SBI said on Telegram on Wednesday.
The message does not mention the name of the defendant, but refers to the head of the Anti-Corruption Center (AntAC), Vitaliy Shabunin. The day before, he reported in his Telegram channel that the SBI and the Prosecutor General’s Office "leaked to TG channels" his intimate photos from a phone seized during a search. According to Shabunin, this was a "response" to the publication of a website with a list of security officers who destroyed the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine/Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (NABU/SAPO)".
"The State Bureau of Investigation will thoroughly check employees who have access to private information regarding one of the persons involved in the criminal proceedings," the Bureau’s statement says.
According to the agency, a number of media outlets published private photos of a person who is a person involved in the Bureau’s criminal proceedings, and this caused "a wave of false accusations against the State Bureau of Investigation and the law enforcement system in general."
The Bureau assured that all SBI employees "who came into contact with this type of evidence" will be checked.
"If the facts of involvement of Bureau employees in the incident are established, strict response measures will be taken and the guilty persons will be held accountable under the law," the Bureau emphasized.
"The SBI operates exclusively within the framework of current legislation and is always open to communication and public control," the message says.