“The Supreme Court overturned the closing of the criminal proceedings against the former mayor of Kharkiv Mykhailo Dobkin, which concerns the so-called “cooperative scheme” of land allocation. Now it will be re-examined by the court of first instance. This became known from the decision of the Supreme Court. The court of the highest instance agreed with the arguments of the prosecution that the case was closed prematurely due to an incorrect calculation of the statute of limitations, since”, — write on: ua.news
The Supreme Court overturned the closing of the criminal proceedings against the former mayor of Kharkiv Mykhailo Dobkin, which concerns the so-called “cooperative scheme” of land allocation. Now it will be re-examined by the court of first instance.
This became known from the decision of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court agreed with the prosecution’s arguments that the case was closed prematurely due to an incorrect calculation of the statute of limitations, since the crime is considered completed from the moment the deed to the land is drawn up, and not from the date of the city council’s decision.
The ruling of the Supreme Court is final and entered into force immediately, however experts of the “Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center” indicate a low probability of actual punishment. According to their data, even according to the refined calculations of the prosecutor’s office, the 15-year term of prosecution for the registration of land deeds in 2010 expired in August 2025. Thus, despite the legal victory of the prosecutors in the higher instance, the long trial of the case, which dragged on for six years, actually allowed the defense to reach the finish line of the statute of limitations.
The history of the issue dates back to 2008, when the Kharkiv city government began to transfer hundreds of hectares of land to housing and construction cooperatives free of charge, which later became known as the “cooperative scheme.” According to the activists’ calculations, about 650 hectares of city land, including protected areas of the Forest Park, were distributed in this way, for a total amount of up to UAH 6 billion. Mykhailo Dobkin was accused of participating in the illegal allocation of plots worth more than UAH 220 million, but due to constant postponements of meetings and the length of procedural actions, the case was closed in March 2024, which has now become the subject of cancellation in the Supreme Court.
We will remind, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine issued a decision on the deprivation of parliamentary immunity detention and arrest of Dobkin. Associates of the deputy from the “Opposition Bloc” declared about readiness to take Dobkin as bail .
The Prosecutor General’s Office claims that Dobkin’s actions revealed signs of a deliberate conspiracy by a group of persons to abuse official position and facilitating fraud with the aim of acquiring 78 hectares of land in Kharkiv with a regulatory value of over UAH 220 million. Dobkin, in turn, denies all the accusations and assures that the Kharkiv City Council did not approve illegal decisions when he was the mayor of the city.
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