5.  The applicant was born in 1974 and lives in the Leningradskiy Region. 6.  On 27 December 1998 the applicant was arrested on suspicion of murder and robbery. He was allegedly ill-treated by the police upon arrest. 7.  On 5 January 1999 a confrontation between the applicant and the witnesses Mr S. and Mr K took place. The two men stated that they were security guards in an office building and that on 27 December 1998 they had seen the applicant carrying office equipment out of the building. He had been armed with a knife. They had apprehended him and called the police. They had found their colleague stabbed to death in the toilets. The applicant was given the opportunity to put questions to the witnesses. 8.  On 6 January 1999 the applicant was formally charged with aggravated murder and robbery. 9.  On 18 June 2002 the St Petersburg City Court convicted the applicant as charged and sentenced him to nineteen years’ imprisonment. It relied on oral statements by Mr S. before the court, the written deposition of Mr K. made at the pre-trial stage, expert reports indicating that the victim’s blood had been found on the applicant’s clothes, and material evidence such as a knife found on his body. 10.  On 10 April 2003 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the judgment on appeal. 11.  From 29 December 1998 to 14 March 2003 and from 21 June to 6 August 2003 the applicant was held in remand centre no. IZ-47/1 in St Petersburg. 12.  According to the applicant the cells were overcrowded. His cell measured 8 sq. m and housed ten to twelve inmates. The applicant was therefore afforded between 0.6 and 0.8 sq. m of floor space. There were shutters on the windows. 13.  In reply to a complaint by the applicant that the conditions of his detention were appalling, a St Petersburg deputy prosecutor informed him on 1 October 2001 that overcrowding was a systemic problem in all remand centres, including remand centre no. IZ-47/1, and it was not possible to meet the statutory sanitary norm of 4 sq. m per inmate or to provide each inmate with a separate bunk. 14.  According to a certificate dated 7 May 2007 issued by the remand centre administration and submitted by the Government, it was not possible to establish which cells the applicant had been held in, or the number of inmates in those cells, as the registers for that period had been destroyed on expiry of the statutory storage time-limit. 15.  Relying on certificates of the same date from the remand centre administration, the Government further submitted that the applicant had at all times had a separate bunk and had been provided with bedding. All cells were equipped with toilet facilities which were separated from the living area by a partition. Inmates could take a shower once a week. They received wholesome food. The shutters had been removed in the second half of 2002. The applicant had never shared a cell with inmates suffering from tuberculosis. 16.  On 31 December 1998, on his admission to remand centre no. IZ‑47/1, the applicant was examined by the prison doctor and given a chest fluorography examination which revealed no signs of tuberculosis. According to the Government, between January 1999 and October 2002 the applicant was given four more fluorography tests which revealed no pathology in the applicant’s lungs. 17.  On 28 February 2003 a new fluorography test detected changes indicating tuberculosis in the applicant’s lungs. 18.  According to the Government, on 2 March 2003 the applicant was placed in the tuberculosis ward of the remand centre. Following a number of medical analyses carried out in the ward he was diagnosed with infiltrative tuberculosis of the left lung. He was prescribed treatment and a special diet. 19.  On 14 March 2003 the applicant was transferred to the tuberculosis ward of remand centre no. IZ-77/1 in Moscow, where he remained until 21 June 2003. 20.  On 21 June 2003 the applicant returned to the tuberculosis ward of remand centre no. IZ-47/1. A fluorography test carried out on 17 July 2003 detected an improvement in his condition. 21.  On 6 August 2003 the applicant was transferred to a correctional colony, where he was placed in the prison hospital and received anti‑tuberculosis treatment, 22.  On 2 September 2005 a tuberculosis specialist issued the following diagnosis: “clinical recovery from infiltrative tuberculosis”.