Tomorrow, November 14, at 10:00 a.m., the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv will begin consideration of the claim of Viktor Polishchuk, owner of the Gulliver business complex, for the protection of his honor, dignity and business reputation against the Asset Recovery and Management Agency over the statement of its head Olena Duma about the businessman's alleged Russian connections, UNN reports.
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Viktor Polishchuk filed a lawsuit against ARMA to protect his honor, dignity and business reputation. In a commentary to UNN , the businessman explainedthat such a step was forced by the statement of the agency's head, Olena Duma, that he and his wife had "close relations with the Kremlin elite." Polishchuk emphasized that this information was fictitious and untrue.
In response to a request from UNN, ARMA head Olena Duma explainedthat she accused Polishchuk and his wife of having ties to the "Kremlin elite" because she saw such information in the media.
The court initially scheduled the hearing for October 10, but the defendant's lawyer was unable to provide a document confirming that he was authorized to represent ARMA in court. Therefore, the hearing was postponed to November 14.
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The businessman's openness to publicly defend his honor, dignity and business reputation because of the official's statement about his possible Russian connections attracted journalists. After researching this topic, they found out that the information that Viktor Polishchuk's wife, Lilia Rizva, was allegedly the niece of the wife of Russian politician Dmitry Medvedev, appeared in 2015-2016. It was disseminated by the then-incumbent MP Pavlo Rizanenko in his blogs, but he never added evidence to confirm this information. UNN asked Rizanenko to provide documents that would confirm his assumptions, but he refused to comment, citing the fact that he has not been a public figure since 2019.
It can be assumed that Rizanenko's reaction is caused by the fact that he actually has nothing to provide to confirm the common theses, and he was simply "working out" his goals in 2015-2016.
The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv will decide whether the statements made by the Head of ARMA, Olena Duma, were substantiated or whether to force her to publicly refute the allegations against Viktor Polishchuk. The outcome of this trial may have an important impact on the public's future attitude to such statements by public officials, and may also make it impossible for the Polishchuk family to make similar accusations in the future.