The case was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Thus, the court granted the request of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine and released the criminal responsibility of the former missionary.

According to journalists from the courtroom, such a decision was made by Judge Vladimir Karaban.

According to him, the decision comes into force within seven days of its adoption, unless an appeal is filed. The judge also said that the petition was filed by Alexey Kuvshinov, deputy head of the procedural department of the department for investigating crimes committed by criminal organizations, the Office of the Procurator-General of Ukraine. He represented the Prosecutor General's Office in court, but declined to comment.

Sam Kolobov participated in the court session in a videoconference from the Consulate General of Ukraine in Barcelona. In Kiev, the defendant's court was represented by lawyer Yulia Stepanenko.

Recall, Kolobov was Minister of Finance in the period February 28, 2012 - February 27, 2014. He was suspected of embezzling 220 million hryvnias allocated for the construction of a special-purpose telecommunications network.

Kolobov was arrested in the resort town of Altea in the autonomous region of Valencia in early March 2015.

In September 2016, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko did not rule out the possibility of signing an agreement with the investigation by former Finance Minister of Ukraine Kolobov, who is in Spain.

In October of the same year, Deputy Prosecutor General Yevgeny Enin said that Kolobov, who was detained in Spain in March 2015, has a residence permit in that country.

However, as reported URA-Inform, the Spanish court denied the Ukrainian authorities in extradition to the country of former finance minister Yuri Kolobov.