Interior Minister Arsen Avakov
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko says that his office (PGO) has opened a criminal case against Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on the basis of a letter sent by Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the board of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), a Ukrainian civil society organization, according to Channel 24.
"Every day I get [letters] from several dozen people, including from Mr. Shabunin whose letter became the grounds, as a routine practice, for opening a criminal case – you won't believe – against Interior Minister Avakov, because we treat everybody in the same way," he told Channel 24.
"All the letters sent to the PGO undergo similar procedures," he added.
The AntAC informs on its official website that Kyiv's Pechersky district court made the PGO register a claim from the AntAC late in June 2016 on facts of the misappropriation of dozens of hectares of land outside the city of Kharkiv by firms allegedly belonging to Avakov's family member.
In particular, the PGO was ordered to probe whether 18 hectares of recreation land near Kharkiv's ring road had been acquired lawfully.