30 GOGITIDZE AND OTHERS v. GEORGIA JUDGMENT fourth applicants still failed to avail themselves of their procedural rights (see paragraphs 18, 19, 24 and 25 above). The first applicant’s reference to the fact that he was seeking to evade the criminal investigation at that time (see paragraph 90 above) is irrelevant in this regard, since he and the fourth applicant could have designated lawyers to represent their interests at first instance, as they did subsequently before the cassation court (compare with Bongiorno and Others v. Italy, no. 4514/07, § 49, 5 January 2010). In such circumstances, the Court considers that the first and fourth applicants merely chose to exercise their freedom to waive their procedural right to submit arguments before the first-instance court (see Scoppola v. Italy (no. 2) [GC], no. 10249/03, § 135, 17 September 2009), with the result that they failed to refute the prosecutor’s claim. As to the second applicant, who was represented by a lawyer of his choice before the first-instance court, it is noteworthy that some of his arguments and evidence relating to the lawful origin of certain assets were accepted by the Ajarian Supreme Court, leading to the removal of those assets from the confiscation list. 111. As regards the proceedings before the cassation court, the Supreme Court of Georgia, all three applicants availed themselves of the opportunity of presenting their arguments on points of law both in writing and at an oral hearing. The proceedings were conducted, like those at first instance, in an adversarial manner. The applicants did not claim before the Court that there had been any procedural unfairness in the cassation proceedings, limiting their arguments to calling into question the findings of fact (see paragraph 90 above). However, the Court reiterates that it is not within its province to substitute its own assessment of the facts for that of the domestic courts, who are better placed to assess the evidence before them (see Grayson and Barnham v. the United Kingdom, nos. 19955/05 and 15085/06, § 48, 23 September 2008). 112. As to the applicants’ argument that the domestic courts ordered the confiscation of their property on the ground of a mere, unsubstantiated suspicion put forward by the public prosecutor, the Court finds it ill-founded. The domestic courts duly examined the public prosecutor’s claim in the adversarial proceedings in the light of the numerous supporting documents available in the case file (see paragraph 12 above). That evidence led the domestic courts to the finding that the considerable assets acquired by the Gogitidze family during the tenure of the first applicant in public office could not have been financed by his official salaries alone, whilst the remaining applicants had had no other significant sources of income either. A careful examination of the applicants’ financial situation confirmed the existence of a considerable discrepancy between their income and their wealth, and that discrepancy, which was a well-documented factual finding, then became the basis for confiscation. 113. The Court thus finds that there is nothing in the conduct of the civil proceedings in rem to suggest either that the applicants were denied a