The Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases has upheld a decision of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court, which was confirmed by Kyiv's Court of Appeals, sentencing former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko to four years in prison for committing official crimes, but slightly reduced the amount of money that Lutsenko is obliged to pay the Interior Ministry under a civil action.

An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that Presiding Judge Serhiy Slynko announced such a decision on Wednesday.

Thus, the court partially satisfied Lutsenko's cassation appeal and reduced the amount of a civil action from UAH 643,000 to UAH 609,000. Since the term of Lutsenko's serving his sentence is calculated from the time of his detention (after arrest was chosen as a measure of restraint for him), based on the decision of the Higher Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases, the ex-minister will be released at the end of December 2014.

The judge reporting on the case, Tetiana Shyroyan, read out the operative part of the decision.

"A panel of judges decided to reject Prystupliuk's cassation appeal and leave the verdict of the Pechersky District Court and the ruling of the Court of Appeals unchanged. Cassation appeals lodged by Lutsenko's defense counsels were partially satisfied... The decision in terms of the civil action was changed and the size of material damage caused by Lutsenko in favor of the Interior Ministry was reduced to UAH 609,000. The other part of the decision with respect to Lutsenko was left unchanged," reads the operative part of the court decision.