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EU court lifts freeze from assets of Ukraine’s former PM, other Yanukovych era ‘exes’

The court’s ruling concerns the assets of Ukrainian officials that were frozen during the period lasting from March 2014 through March 2015
Former prime minister Mykola Azarov Maria Frolova/ITAR-TASS
Former prime minister Mykola Azarov
© Maria Frolova/ITAR-TASS

KIEV, January 28. /TASS/. The European Union’s court in Luxembourg has made a decision to lift the freeze from the assets of former Ukrainian officials who held senior posts during the Yanukovych presidency, including former prime minister Mykola Azarov, his son Oleksiy, former acting head of the Cabinet, Sergey Arbuzov and former energy minister, Eduard Stavitsky.

"On Thursday, the EU court headquartered in Luxembourg passed a verdict in the common case of Mykola Azarov and Oleksiy Azarov against the European Council and also in the cases of Sergey Arbuzov and Eduard Stavitsky," the Ukrainian periodical Yevropeiskaya Pravda said on Thursday.

In fact, the court canceled sanctions against former Ukrainian officials and ruled their assets should be unfrozen.

"The court ruled that the officials in question cannot be subjected to sanctions for the sole reason a third country is investigating them," the periodical said, adding that the decision called in question all sanctions against Ukrainian officials.

The court’s ruling concerns the assets of Ukrainian officials that were frozen during the period lasting from March 2014 through March 2015. The decision can be protested.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General Vladislav Kutsenko has said this does not mean that the search has been terminated. "It is merely blocked," he said.

Most sanctions will be canceled in March unless the Prosecutor-General’s Office manages to prove these persons’ complicity in embezzlement. For the time being the Prosecutor-General’s Office has not completed most of the investigations of suspected economic crimes allegedly committed by Yanukovych’s entourage.