5.  The applicant was born in 1976 and is currently imprisoned. 6.  On 31 December 1999 the applicant, Mr D. and Mr G. were arrested by the police on suspicion of having committed a murder. 7.  On 3 January 2000, given the gravity of the offence of which the applicant was suspected, the investigator of the Druzhkivka District Prosecutor’s Office decided that the applicant should be remanded in custody for up to two months. The same day the Druzhkivka District Prosecutor issued the arrest warrant, authorising thereby the investigator’s decision. 8.  On 20 February 2000 the Druzhkivka District Prosecutor extended the term of the applicant’s detention until 31 March 2000. 9.  On 23 March 2000 the applicant, Mr D. and Mr G. were charged with murder. 10.  On 24 March 2000 the investigator completed the investigation and gave the applicant and the co-accused access to the case file. However, on 11 April 2000 the investigator reopened the investigation and additionally charged the applicant with aggravated robbery. On 12 April 2000 the investigation was completed and the applicant and the co-accused continued studying the case-file until 27 April 2000. 11.  On 6 May 2000 the supervising prosecutor approved the bill of indictment and transferred the case file to the Donetsk Regional Court of Appeal (hereafter “the Court of Appeal”) for trial proceedings. 12.  On 17 May 2000 the Court of Appeal committed the applicant and the co-accused for trial and held that the preventive measure in their respect was to remain unchanged. The hearing took place in the presence of the prosecutor, but the applicant and his lawyer were absent. 13.  On 2 October 2001 the Court of Appeal held a hearing in the applicant’s case, where it considered several applications submitted by the co-accused and adjourned consideration of the case until the requisite technical facilities could be installed for the proceedings. According to the applicant, the Court of Appeal also adjourned consideration of his release request, lodged before the hearing. 14.  According to the applicant, in the period between 2 October 2001 and 6 October 2003 he lodged about twenty requests for his release with the Court of Appeal, referring to his health problems and relying on his right to a trial within a reasonable time or release pending trial as guaranteed by Article 5 § 3 of the Convention. Those requests remained unanswered however. 15.  On 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 October 2003 the Court of Appeal held hearings in the case during which it examined the evidence and questioned the defendants and witnesses. 16.  Further court hearings took place on 26 and 27 January, 9, 10, 11, 15, 23, and 24 March, and 26 and 28 April 2004, during which the Court of Appeal continued examining the evidence and questioning witnesses. Within that period the hearings were adjourned three times because one of the defendants was feeling ill and twice because the counsel of the other defendant failed to appear before the court. 17.  In a letter of 4 March 2004 the Deputy President of the Court of Appeal informed the applicant that his latest complaint about the excessive length of the proceedings had been rejected on the same basis as the previous ones, namely that there were compelling and valid reasons for the delays in the proceedings. However, the nature of those reasons was not specified in the letter. 18.  On 6 May 2004 the Court of Appeal considered the applicant’s release requests and rejected them, holding that he was charged with a grave offence and, if at large, might influence the proceedings. The Court of Appeal further adjourned the case in order to question additional witnesses. 19.  On 14 May 2004 the Court of Appeal found, inter alia, that the applicant was guilty of having committed a murder and aggravated robbery. It sentenced him to fourteen years’ imprisonment, minus the time spent in pre-trial detention, and ordered the confiscation of his property. On 16 December 2004 the Supreme Court upheld that judgment. 20.  During his detention on remand the applicant wrote letters in which he complained about his conditions of detention to various officials, including a public prosecutor supervising penitentiary establishments, the Ombudsman, the Prisons Department and Members of Parliament. In accordance with the prescribed procedure, these letters were sent through officials at the detention centre, who dispatched them to the addressees. The applicant’s letters were subject to automatic monitoring and censorship except for those addressed to the prosecutors and, in the later stages of his detention, to the Ombudsman. 21.  According to the applicant, in February 2003, while being held in the detention centre, he wrote a complaint to the Donetsk Directorate of the Prisons Department, describing the ill-treatment and arbitrary punishment inflicted on him by officials at the detention centre. He sent the complaint without going through the officials at the detention centre, in violation of the domestic legislation. Shortly after the complaint had reached the addressee, the governor of the detention centre punished the applicant with ten days’ confinement in a disciplinary cell for breaching the procedure for sending letters.