SBU launches criminal proceedings against ex-Ukrainian MP Farion

Ukraine's SBU State Security Service has launched criminal proceedings against former Ukrainian MP Iryna Farion and has already appointed a number of examinations over her remarks and publications.

That's according to the SBU's press center, Ukrinform reports.

According to the investigation, in one of her interviews, Farion said that she categorically does not accept Russian-speaking service members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and cannot call them Ukrainians. This caused an uproar among Ukrainian defenders and in society in general.

In addition, in her accounts on social media, the ex-MP published a post with a screenshot of a message from a pro-Ukrainian student from temporarily occupied Crimea, in which the name, surname and other personal data of the sender were indicated.

This served as a basis for the student's persecution by the Russian special services, the SBU said.

Criminal proceedings have been opened under Article 161 (violating the equality of citizens depending on their racial, national, regional affiliation, religious beliefs, disability and other grounds), Article 435-1 (insulting the honor and dignity of a service member, making threats to a service member), Article 163 (violating the secrecy of correspondence, phone calls, telegraphic or other correspondence transmitted by means of communication or through a computer), and Article 182 (violating the inviolability of private life) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The SBU also initiated a psychological and linguistic examination of Farion's remarks.

The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

Farion, a linguist, doctor of philological sciences and a professor at the Lviv Polytechnic National University, accused the Ukrainian military, particularly Azov regiment soldiers, of communicating in Russian. Her statements caused outrage in society.

Yehor Cherniev, deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, said Farion's statements posed a threat to national security and called on the SBU to check them.

Later, Farion posted on her Telegram channel a screenshot of a letter with words of support from a student from Crimea, Maxim Glebov. At the same time, she did not hide the boy's name and the city where he studies.

Subsequently, a video was uploaded to the pro-Russian Telegram channel Krymsky Smersh in which Glebov apologizes for the letter that he wrote to Farion and claims that he has renounced his views.

Tamila Tasheva, the Ukrainian president's representative in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, stressed the need to bring Farion to justice for publishing a letter from a pro-Ukrainian student in temporarily occupied Crimea.

The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, appealed to the SBU following the disclosure of confidential information by Farion.

Farion, in turn, called the situation with the student from Crimea a "provocation."