Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes has given testimony to Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) in the criminal case involving land transactions by Kharkiv to pseudo-construction companies, also known as the 'cooperative scheme.'

"I was questioned for about eight hours by PGO investigators, right after Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine deputy Mykhailo Dobkin (Opposition Bloc Party) was questioned in July 2017," Kernes told journalists on Wednesday.

As earlier reported, on July 13, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine backed three requests submitted by Prosecutor General Lutsenko about giving its consent to the prosecution, detention and arrest of Opposition Bloc MP Mykhailo Dobkin.

On June 29, Lutsenko submitted a request to the Verkhovna Rada, seeking consent to prosecute, detain and arrest Dobkin. In his words, Dobkin's actions have "signs of deliberate collusion of a group of persons for abuse of office and assistance to fraud in order to acquire 78 hectares of land in Kharkiv with an estimated value of over UAH 220 million."

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, Dobkin, acting deliberately in collusion with a group of persons, abusing his official position in the interests of third parties, committed a criminal offense under Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (as amended by the law dated April 5, 2001). In addition, Dobkin contributed to the implementation of criminal intent to seize land in territory of Kharkiv by deception, that is, committed a criminal offense under Part 5 of Article 27, Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

On July 12, the Verkhovna Rada regulations committee recognized as legitimate and motivated only one presentation by Prosecutor General Lutsenko seeking Rada's consent to prosecute Opposition Bloc faction member Dobkin.

PGO detectives have not served Kernes with a notice of suspicion.