The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has finalized a pretrial inquiry into illegal privatization of telecoms giant Ukrtelecom and has obtained the court's permission to try former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and former Finance Minister Yuriy Kolobov in absentia; the court's consent with former First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov's trial in-absentia is pending, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said.
He told reporters later on, "Regarding Azarov. We have indeed finalized the inquiry into the embezzlement of 220 million [hryvnias] in the course of Ukraine's special communication system project. Yanukovych personally gave instructions to Azarov, who passed the instructions to the finance minister; they illegally submitted budgetary amendments, the parliament voted in their favor, and the money was assigned from the state budget."
