You're reading: Yanukovych, Azarov face new criminal charges – prosecutor

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has launched a new criminal inquiry against the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych, and former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

“Of the new criminal cases, I would like to inform you that from October 2010 through July 2013 Ukrainian President Yanukovych conspired with a group of individuals, in particular, Prime Minister Azarov, Finance Minister [Yuriy] Kolobov, Deputy Finance Minister [Anatoliy] Miarkovsky, head of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection [Hennadiy] Reznikov and a member of the supervisory board at Ukrtelecom, who, motivated by their own personal interests, deliberately organized financing, at the expense of the national budget, for the construction of a dedicated telecommunications network for special communication,” Ukrainian Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Some of these officials have been notified that they were suspected of committing this offence, the prosecutor general said.