7.  The applicant was born in 1968 and lives in Samara. She is a former chief tax inspector. 8.  On 27 August 1998 the applicant was committed to stand trial on charges of abuse of position and concerted extortion of a bribe. 9.  On 28 October 1998 the Samara Regional Court delivered its judgment. It found the applicant guilty of fraud committed in concert with another person through use of her official position, an offence under Article 159 § 2 (a) and (v) of the Criminal Code. She was sentenced to a fine of 1,000 minimum wages (approximately EUR 5,000) and prohibited from holding any positions in tax authorities for three years. 10.  On 17 March 1999 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the conviction on appeal. Counsel for the applicant was present at the hearing. 11.  As no ordinary appeal lay against the appeal judgment, counsel for the applicant introduced an application for supervisory review with the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. He sought a reversal of the judgments passed in the applicant's case in order to redress the violations of the rights of the defence. 12.  On 24 February 2000 a deputy president of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation lodged an application for supervisory-review with the Presidium of that court. Although the text of the application has not been made available to the Court, it appears from the Government's submissions that he asked for a recharacterisation of the applicant's offence which, in his opinion, should be qualified as an attempt to commit fraud. 13.  On 24 May 2000 the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation examined the application for supervisory review. The applicant and her counsel were not summoned to the hearing and did not attend it. The Presidium heard a report by the judge rapporteur and statements by a deputy Prosecutor General who spoke in support of the recharacterisation. The Presidium found that the offence imputed to the applicant had not been brought to completion. On that ground the Presidium recharacterised the applicant's offence as an attempt to commit fraud (Article 159 § 2 (a) and (v) of the Criminal Code in conjunction with Article 30 § 3). The applicant's sentence remained unaffected. 14.  On 29 May 2000 a copy of the Presidium's decision was mailed to the applicant.