Director of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Oleksiy Sukhachov hopes that the Verkhovna Rada will support the initiative to grant the Military Law Enforcement Service (MLE) in the AFU the right of pre-trial investigation regarding servicemen who, in particular, went AWOL (unauthorized leave from the unit).
"Our proposal is as follows: to grant the Military Law Enforcement Service the right of pre-trial investigation. This can be easily done within the staff numbers of the AFU, without increasing funding," Sukhachov said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
The SBI director noted that the updated body of pre-trial investigation will be able to investigate such criminal offenses as AWOL, desertion, disobedience, and some others.
"We proposed to select personnel from among servicemen who have a legal education, experience of work in operational or investigative positions in law enforcement agencies, and to form an effective apparatus from this category that will immediately begin investigating criminal proceedings of the specified categories," the SBI director explained.
According to him, it is proposed that the MLE investigate crimes of servicemen who do not hold an officer rank.
Sukhachov reported that this draft law is currently under consideration by the committee on law enforcement activities.
Speaking about whether the SBI expects support for this draft law from the Verkhovna Rada, the Bureau director emphasized: "For us, for the state, for the security of society as a whole, this is very important. Therefore, we hope and expect that the parliament will meet us halfway, pay more attention to the problem of AWOL, and support this initiative."
Thus, as he explained, this will become a kind of element of military justice.
However, as Sukhachov noted, he does not support the idea of creating military courts, which is being expressed in the committee. "My personal opinion is that this does not need to be done. This means big expenses both in terms of finances and time. Because military courts need a specific budget: for creating an apparatus, technical support, and so on. And I am not even talking about personnel, when courts already critically lack judges," Sukhachov said.
