Closing arguments concluded today at the HACC in the civil asset forfeiture case against MP Liudmyla Marchenko.

In his address, the prosecutor set out the following points:

• each asset in the civil case has been tied specifically to Marchenko, not to members of her family;
• an analysis of the evidence confirms that the property was knowingly registered in other people's names;
• the witnesses questioned disprove the respondents' account that Liudmyla Marchenko's paternal uncle gifted her family a substantial sum of money;
• the incomes of Marchenko's father and mother are untaxed, and there is no clear confirmation of where they came from;
• the Tsipoviaz family — Liudmyla Marchenko's parents and brother — had no money, as court cases over the recovery of loan debts also show, which does not square with the testimony Marchenko gave in court.

The prosecutor asked the court to declare the assets unjustified and recover them to state revenue.

Liudmyla Marchenko disagreed with the prosecutor's assertions. She maintains that the investigation is trying to place her at the center of a dispute over assets she neither bought nor controlled. She also noted that in her family it is normal for children to use their parents' property, and that this is not criminal conduct. The MP therefore asked the court to dismiss the claim.

Representatives of Marchenko and the other respondents backed her position. They also stressed that the prosecutor had overlooked the apartments' actual value, discounts included, and said the Tsipoviaz family's income was substantial — so it had real, not fictitious, funds to buy all the properties.

The court will announce the date and time for delivering its judgment on the merits of the SAPO prosecutor's claim later.