Criminal proceedings initiated against former Kharkiv Governor Avakov

The Prosecutor’s Office on 26 January initiated criminal proceedings specifically against the head of the Kharkiv regional branch of the Batkivshchyna Party and former Kharkiv Governor, Arsen Avakov. 

This follows reports two weeks ago that a criminal investigation had been initiated against officials from the Kharkiv Regional State Administration and from the Kharkiv Regional Office of the State Agency for Land Resources over alleged land fraud in 2009.  The Prosecutor then stated that checks were carried out based on a request from the current Kharkiv Regional State Administration on 3 January 2012 on the signing and issuing of state ownership acts for land plots to a limited liability company.

This resulted in a criminal investigation being initiated in connection with “the illegal disposal through abuse of office and forgery in 2009 of almost 55 hectares of state-owned land worth more than 5.5 million UAH."

The report on Thursday says that the criminal case is against Avakov himself, on suspicion of disposing of 50 hectares of land.  The investigation is under Article 365 § 3 of the Criminal Code (exceeding official powers and duties with grave consequences).

Arsen Avakov served as Governor under Viktor Yushchenko. He joined the Batkivshchyna Party of Yulia Tymoshenko in 2010 and ran for Mayor their candidate.  The elections were widely condemned as seriously flawed, and there were calls for a re-run.  These, however, were ignored, and Gennady Kernes declared Mayor.

From a report at http://un.ua/ukr/article/372060.html