The central investigation department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has completed an investigation into a criminal case, which was resumed by Judge of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv Rodion Kireyev, against former State Guard Department Major Mykola Melnychenko regarding the divulging of state secrets.

Melnychenko's lawyer, Mykola Nedilko, told reporters on Friday that starting from December 20, he and Melnychenko started examining the materials of the criminal case, which consists of 17 volumes.

The lawyer said that investigators had removed Article 358 (forgery) from the charges brought against Melnychenko, thus leaving the previously incriminated "abuse of power or office" and "divulging of state secrets."

Nedilko added that on December 19, he and his client received a letter from the Prosecutor General's Office stating that "given the fact that the evidence gathered during the pre-trial investigation is sufficient to produce the indictment, the investigator was ordered to fulfill the requirements of Parts 1-3, Article 290 of the Criminal Procedure Code regarding the launch of criminal proceedings."

The lawyer said that the letter notes that in accordance with Part 6 of the same article of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Prosecutor General's Office asked him and Melnychenko "to provide access to any material evidence or its parts, documents or their copies, containing information that the defense team plans use as evidence in court."

"Earlier, the defense team could use unexpected moves for the prosecutor, but now, based on the Ukrainian realities, the disclosure by the defense team of evidence that will point to the innocence of the defendant gives the prosecutor an opportunity to use the obtained materials in his favor," Nedilko said.

In November 2000, a scandal broke in Ukraine after the parliament announced there were audio recordings allegedly made by Melnychenko in the office of then President Leonid Kuchma. Melnychenko was charged with divulging state secrets, exceeding his powers and using forged documents.

In September 2011, Melnychenko was put on the wanted list. A court in Kyiv ordered that he be remanded in custody, as Melnychenko had skipped bail and absconded.

Melnychenko was arrested in Italy on August 3. On August 14, an appellate court in Naples decided to release him.

On September 14, 2012 Melnychenko told a briefing in the United States that, on sensational audio tapes published by him, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko was named as the person who had commissioned the murder of businessman Yevhen Scherban, and that Petro Kyrychenko, a business partner of Lazarenko, and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, had paid for the crime.

Melnychenko was detained at Kyiv's Boryspil International Airport on October 24, where he had arrived on a flight from New York.

On October 26, Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky District Court released him on bail of UAH 76,500, which is around $9,600, and obliged him to report any change of residence to the investigator.