The Supreme Court of Ukraine has returned the case of Mykhailo Dobkin regarding the cooperative land allocation scheme for reconsideration.
The case of Mykhailo Dobkin, who served as the mayor of Kharkiv from 2006 to 2010, was a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation in 2014–2019, headed the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, and currently serves as a deacon of the UOC (MP), was re-referred to the court of first instance due to violation of legal procedures in closing the case. The corresponding resolution was adopted by the Supreme Court of Ukraine.
According to the resolution, the prosecutor’s cassation appeal was granted, the resolutions of the Dzerzhynsky (now Shevchenkivsky) District Court of Kharkiv dated March 25, 2024 and the Kharkiv Court of Appeal dated June 25, 2024 were canceled, and the case was assigned for a new trial in the first instance. The Supreme Court’s ruling entered into force from the moment of its announcement and is final, meaning it cannot be appealed.
The cooperative scheme at issue in the lawsuit consisted of the city council allocating land free of charge to housing and construction cooperatives for the construction of apartment buildings, starting in 2008. Within the framework of this scheme, at least 650 hectares of land worth 4–6 billion hryvnias were illegally distributed, including plots in Lisopark, which included a forest massif, a recreation area, and three nature conservation sites.
In February 2018, the court found three founders of one of the cooperatives guilty of embezzling city land and sentenced them to five years in prison, suspended for three years without confiscation of property.
In July 2017, the Verkhovna Rada gave its consent to bring Dobkin to criminal liability, his detention, and arrest. The Pechersky District Court of Kyiv chose a preventive measure for the former mayor in the form of detention with the possibility of posting bail in the amount of 50 million hryvnias, after which Dobkin was released.
The indictment against Dobkin was submitted to the court in 2018. It concerned the allocation of land plots with a total value of over 220 million hryvnias. The consideration of the case was constantly postponed, which led to a delay in the process for six years.
In March 2024, the Dzerzhynsky District Court granted the lawyer’s request and closed the case due to the expiration of the 15-year term for bringing him to criminal responsibility. The Kharkiv Court of Appeal confirmed this decision at the end of June 2024.
