8.  The applicant was born in 1964 and lives in Tamsweg, Austria. 9.  On 3 July 2000 the Innsbruck Regional Court (Landesgericht), sitting as a court with two professional and two lay judges (Schöffengericht), acquitted the applicant of charges of drug trafficking on a large scale and other offences under the Drugs Act (Suchtmittelgesetz) on the basis of the principle in dubio pro reo. It dismissed the applicant’s request to hear further witnesses, finding that there was no additional evidence necessary to prove the lack of credibility of the incriminating statement. 10.  Immediately after the pronouncement of the acquittal, and at the same hearing, the Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s request for compensation for his detention on remand from 2 May 1999 until 23 December 1999 and from 27 December 1999 to 22 May 2000.
It found that “pursuant to Section 2 (1)(b) of the Criminal Proceedings Compensation Act 1969 (Strafrechtliches Entschädigungsgesetz 1969 - “the 1969 Act”) compensation for detention on remand [might] be granted if the accused had been acquitted and the suspicion that he had committed the offence has been dispelled.“ Further, it found that “the requirements for granting compensation for detention on remand under Section 2 (1)(b) of the 1969 Act were not met as the applicant was only acquitted on the basis of the principle in dubio pro reo”. 11.  On 19 September 2000 the Innsbruck Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht) dismissed the applicant’s appeal. Referring to the case of Sekanina v. Austria (judgment of 25 August 1993, Series A no. 266-A, pp.15-16, § 30), it considered that only a decision which, following the accused’s acquittal, expressed the view that the latter was guilty could violate the presumption of innocence, and that in the present case no such additional finding on the suspicion against the applicant had been made. Moreover, it found that, considering the incriminating statement of witness P.R., a suspicion against the applicant persisted. 12.  On 11 August 2004 the Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof), upon the Procurator General’s plea of nullity for the preservation of law (Nichtigkeitsbeschwerde zur Wahrung des Gesetzes), quashed the decisions of the Regional Court and the Court of Appeal and remitted the case to the Regional Court. It found that the courts’ failure to hold a public hearing in the compensation proceedings and to announce the decisions in public violated the applicant’s rights under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention. It also noted that, in the subsequent proceedings, the Regional Court would have to decide on the applicant’s compensation claim in the light of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of the voicing of a suspicion following an acquittal, within the meaning of Article 6 § 2 of the Convention.