6.  The applicant was born in 1963 and lives in Perm. 7.  On 18 October 1996 the applicant was involved in a traffic accident committed by a Mr P. The applicant, his wife and son were injured and the applicant’s car was damaged. Criminal proceedings against Mr P. were discontinued in accordance with an amnesty law. 8.  Mr P. and his mother complained to the police that they had been subjected to constant harassment by the applicant, who had repeatedly threatened them in a number of phone calls and had allegedly demanded money in compensation for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained as a result of the traffic accident. 9.  On 29 March 1999 the Industrialniy District Court of Perm issued a decision, authorising the institution of criminal proceedings against the applicant on suspicion of aggravated defamation and insulting behaviour. 10.  In July 1999 Mr P. petitioned the Perm Regional Prosecutor to detain the applicant and to subject him to a psychiatric examination because the harassment had not stopped and had even escalated to death threats against both Mr P. and his mother. Twenty days later Mr P.’s lawyer repeated the request. 11.  On 24 September 1999 another set of criminal proceedings was instituted against the applicant who, in these proceedings, was under suspicion of having made death threats. 12.  On 5 November 1999 the two sets of criminal proceedings were joined and the applicant’s placement in custody was authorised. He was placed in temporary detention facility no. IZ-59/1 in Perm (hereinafter “facility no. 1”). 13.  The applicant lodged a complaint with the Industrialniy District Court, alleging that his arrest was unlawful. 14.  On 25 November 1999 the District Court dismissed the complaint, confirming the lawfulness of the arrest. That decision was upheld on appeal by the Perm Regional Court on 22 December 1999. 15.  On 6 December 1999 a prosecutor authorised an extension of the applicant’s detention until 5 February 2000. On 18 January 2000 the Industrialniy District Court rejected the applicant’s subsequent appeal against the extension, noting the gravity of the charges against him. 16.  Whereas the investigation in the criminal case continued, the applicant was released on 4 February 2000 on a written undertaking not to leave the town. 17.  On 31 August 2000 the Industrialniy District Court, having held hearings in the applicant’s presence, found him guilty of aggravated defamation and extortion, acquitted him of the remaining charges and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment. On the same day the applicant was taken to facility no. 1. 18.  Following the appeal hearing which the applicant attended, on 9 November 2000 the Perm Regional Court quashed the judgment, acquitted him of aggravated defamation and ordered a fresh examination into the charge of extortion. The applicant was released on the same day under a written undertaking not to leave the town. 19.  In accordance with the order of the Regional Court, on 18 January 2001 the Industrialniy District Court authorised an additional investigation into the charge of extortion. 20.  On 26 March 2002 the District Court further ordered a psychiatric assessment of the applicant. That decision was upheld on appeal on 30 April 2002 by the Perm Regional Court, which, in so far as relevant, held as follows:
“As appears from the case file materials, [the applicant] is accused of having committed criminal offences which resulted from the fact that in 1996 his family had been involved in a traffic accident caused by a driver, Mr P. Criminal proceedings against Mr P. were discontinued in accordance with an amnesty law. [The applicant] did not accept the outcome of the criminal case and began complaining to various institutions and authorities. Having received replies, he began making numerous written requests asking to have the authorities who had dealt with his complaints, including his lawyer who had represented his interests, held liable. In December 1999 the investigating authorities, having doubts that [the applicant] was mentally healthy, ordered a forensic psychiatric examination. Experts concluded that [the applicant] did not have a psychiatric illness, but [that] he was a psychopath. However, the stream of complaints and motions subsequently intensified; the circle of people against whom he asked [for a] criminal investigation to be opened due to their alleged failure to carry out their duties broadened. Having regard to those facts, [the District] court found that it was necessary to perform an additional examination.” 21.  According to the Government, the examination was scheduled for 31 July 2002. However, the applicant refused to attend it and the Industrialniy District Court ordered his being brought for examination against his will. 22.  On 26 October 2002 the applicant was apprehended in Perm and taken to the Serbskiy State Scientific Centre of Social and Forensic Psychiatry in Moscow (hereinafter “the Centre”). A month later the Centre issued an expert report finding that the applicant suffered from schizophrenia. The expert conclusions were based, inter alia, on the following considerations:
“[The diagnosis] is confirmed by the medical history, showing that since adolescence [the applicant] has acute premorbid personality traits such as hyperactivity, the urge to become a self-reliant person [and] an intense feeling of injustice, with subsequent slowly growing psychopathic changes (extreme straightforwardness, intolerance, contentiousness, rudeness, unsociability, arrogance) and a tendency to establish obsessive interests (all-absorbing passion for technical equipment [and] jurisprudence) which transformed into affective, obsessive [and] absurd ideas, relations, querulous paranoia, litigiousness over an extremely broad number of subjects and involving a large number of people, which led to his incorrect behaviour, litigious activities and malfunctioning social adaptation.”
The applicant was released from the Centre on 21 November 2002. 23.  Another psychiatric examination of the applicant was ordered by the Industrialniy District Court on 10 January 2003. 24.  On 27 January 2003 the District Court issued two decisions authorising the applicant’s arrest on the grounds that he had been charged with a particularly serious criminal offence and the forensic psychiatric examination had established that he “suffered from schizophrenia [and] presented a danger to society”. The decisions, one handwritten and the other one typed, were identical in wording save for one difference. By the first decision the District Court ordered the applicant’s placement in a psychiatric hospital. By the second decision it authorised his detention in detention facility no. 1 in Perm. The applicant attended the hearing. 25.  The applicant provided the Court with copies of the two decisions, both bearing the presiding judge’s signature and the court’s stamp. The Government explained that on 27 January 2003 the presiding judge had issued a handwritten detention order authorising the applicant’s admission to a psychiatric hospital. Subsequently, the court registry had prepared a typed version of the same decision. The Government argued that the case file materials had not contained the second decision ordering the applicant’s detention in facility no. 1. The applicant was taken into custody in the court house and taken to detention facility no. 1. 26.  The applicant lodged an appeal against the decision of 27 January 2003. He complained that there had been no evidence that he was a danger to society and that, accordingly, there was no need to detain him. As follows from the stamp on the statement of appeal, the Perm Regional Court received it on 29 January 2003. 27.  On 31 January and 1 February 2003 the applicant lodged additional statements of appeal, further challenging the grounds for his arrest. Stamps on the statements show that they reached the Perm Regional Court on 31 January and 2 February 2003 respectively. 28.  The applicant’s appeals against the decision of 27 January 2003 never received a reply. 29.  It appears that on 17 and 18 February 2003 the Industrialniy District Court held trial hearings. While the applicant’s lawyer and mother attended, the applicant was not brought to the courthouse. The District Court did not issue any formal decision addressing his absence from the trial. However, as it follows from the case file, the matter was raised and discussed leading to the presiding judge’s conclusion that the applicant’s presence was unnecessary. 30.  On 18 February 2003 the Industrialniy District Court held that the applicant had committed aggravated extortion but relieved him from criminal responsibility, finding that he was mentally incapacitated. The District Court ordered the application of compulsory measures of a medical nature to the applicant and his placement in a psychiatric hospital for intensive care. The relevant part of the decision read as follows:
“... Having regard to the fact that [the applicant] suffers from a mental illness, he is inclined to reoffend, including by committing particularly serious [criminal offences], he distinguishes himself by [behaving] aggressively, by [being] intolerant to other individuals, it is necessary to commit him to compulsory treatment in a special psychiatric hospital with intensive care”. 31.  On 20 February 2003, in response to the District Court’s order of 10 January 2003, the Perm Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital issued an expert report, confirming the findings made by the experts of the Centre. 32.  On 15 April 2003 the Perm Regional Court held an appeal hearing. The applicant was not brought to it, despite his requests to that effect. Both his lawyer and his mother were present. The Regional Court examined the applicant’s complaint of failure to ensure his presence at the trial hearings and found that the District Court had acted lawfully because the domestic law did not require his presence. It also pointed out that the applicant had been represented by his mother and a lawyer. Having been fully convinced by the District Court’s findings, the Regional Court upheld the decision of 18 February 2003. 33.  In the meantime, the Industrialniy District Prosecutor filed a motion with the District Court seeking a declaration of the applicant’s incapacity. The prosecutor argued that the applicant should be deprived of legal capacity for reason of insanity. 34.  On 6 May 2003 the Industrialniy District Court found that the applicant suffered from a chronic mental illness, he was unable to appreciate his conduct and its danger to society or to control his actions, and he was in need of constant supervision. The District Court declared the applicant legally incapacitated. The applicant did not appeal against that decision. 35.  According to the Government, the applicant was detained in facility no. 1 in Perm until 24 July 2003 because his transfer to a specialised psychiatric hospital in Kaliningrad was delayed as the Russian authorities had failed to obtain a visa permitting the applicant’s transit through Lithuania. Relying on a statement by a representative of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, the Government submitted that during the entire period of his detention in facility no. 1 the applicant had been detained in a cell designated for mentally ill inmates. 36.  On 24 July 2003 the applicant’s transfer to a psychiatric hospital in Kazan was authorised. The hospital, however, refused to admit him because he did not have a valid identity document. The applicant therefore continued being detained in detention facility no. 1 until 18 August 2003. On that date he was sent to the psychiatric hospital in Kazan. On 4 June 2004 he was released from the hospital.