President's decision on SBU leadership creates dangerous precedent - MP Friz

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy exceeded his constitutional powers by dismissing the head of the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Maliuk and appointing Yevhen Khmara as acting head, Member of Parliament Iryna Friz (European Solidarity faction), a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, has said.

"According to the Constitution, the appointment and dismissal of the head of the Security Service of Ukraine is carried out by the Verkhovna Rada upon the proposal of the president. According to Article 85 of the Constitution of Ukraine, this is exclusively the authority of the parliament. The president may adopt a decision to dismiss an official whose appointment and dismissal are attributed to his powers (Part 2, Article 11 of the Law On the Legal Regime of Martial Law). However, the appointment and dismissal of the head of the SBU is not the authority of the president: he only submits a proposal, and the decision is made by the parliament," Friz told Interfax-Ukraine.

According to the MP, this "creates a dangerous precedent: the head of state not only bypasses the procedure for appointing the head of a key state security body, but also undermines the established democratic practice of parliamentary control over the power bloc."

Friz noted that Ukraine has a long and complex history of political persecution and the use of law enforcement and security agencies as an instrument of pressure, and that is why the mechanism for appointing the head of the SBU through parliament was established as a democratic safeguard.

"The military clearly expressed their position in the public space. The security and defense forces oppose the release of Maliuk, and there is every reason to believe that it would be difficult to gather votes for such a decision in the session hall. The president, as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, should strengthen defense capabilities, not weaken them," Friz emphasized.