9.  The applicant was born in 1932 and lives in Wels. 10.  On 4 April 1984 the Wels Regional Court (Kreisgericht) served an arrest warrant on the applicant for suspicion of continued aggravated fraud (gewerbsmäβiger schwerer Betrug) committed since 1 January 1979. The same day the applicant was arrested. 11.  On 5 April 1984 the Wels Regional Court ordered the applicant’s detention on remand. 12.  On 13 and 17 April 1984 and 7 June 1984 supplementary charges led to the extension of the preliminary investigations against the applicant. 13.  On 4 May 1984 the appointed accountancy expert was sworn in. 14.  On 28 September 1984 the applicant was released from detention. 15.  During the pre-trial phase in 1985 and 1986 more than 60 witnesses were heard, some of them under letters rogatory. On 14 February 1986 the expert submitted a comprehensive opinion, as a result of which further witnesses were heard. 16.  On 22 April 1987 the preliminary investigations were closed and the file, which comprised 15 volumes consisting of more than 500 documents, was transferred to the Wels Public Prosecutor’s Office (Staatsanwaltschaft). 17.  On 6 July 1987 the Public Prosecutor’s Office preferred the indictment charging the applicant and three co-accused with continued aggravated fraud, and with negligent and fraudulent bankruptcy (fahrlässige und betrügerische Krida). The bill of indictment, which arrived at the Regional Court on 29 July 1987, comprised 143 pages and consisted of 29 counts of aggravated fraud, out of which 10 concerned the applicant; 5 counts of fraudulent bankruptcy, out of which one concerned the applicant; and 4 counts of negligent bankruptcy all concerning the applicant. 
The major part of the charges as well as further charges relating to various other offences concerned one co-accused, Mr H., a former judge at the Wels Regional Court. The applicant’s and Mr H.’s objections against the indictment were dismissed by the Linz Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht). 18.  On 30 May 1988 the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested the Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof) that jurisdiction over the case be transferred to the Vienna Regional Criminal Court (Landesgericht für Strafsachen) on the ground that H. had moved to Vienna and that numerous witnesses were residing there. On 9 August 1988 the Supreme Court allowed the transfer. The file arrived at the Vienna Regional Court on 16 September 1988, which set trial hearings for the period between September and November 1989. 19.  On 25 September 1989 the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office filed a request for transfer of jurisdiction to the Linz Regional Court since it had turned out that H. had not moved to Vienna. The Linz Regional Court was proposed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office on the ground that it was feared that all the judges of the Wels Regional Court could declare themselves biased as the case concerned their former colleague H. In his statement of 13 October 1989 the applicant indicated that he had no objections against this transfer. On 18 December 1989 the Supreme Court allowed the transfer. On 29 December 1989 the Linz Public Prosecutor’s Office requested that a trial hearing be fixed. 20.  Subsequently the Linz Regional Court, sitting with two professional and two lay judges, suggested ex officio the re-transfer of the case to the Wels Regional Court, which was refused by the Linz Court of Appeal on 13 June 1990. On 22 June 1990 a first trial hearing was set for 18 December 1990. 21.  Between 18 December 1990 and 5 September 1991, the Linz Regional Court, sitting with two professional and two lay judges, held 55 trial hearings involving the applicant and the co-accused, Mr H. Numerous witnesses as well as the appointed expert were heard. On the latter date the Regional Court convicted the applicant of continued aggravated fraud and negligent bankruptcy and sentenced him to 18 months’ imprisonment, 14 of which were suspended on probation. The written version of the judgment, comprising 692 pages, was served on 11 December 1991. The applicant did not appeal. 22.  On 7 January 1992 the Public Prosecutor’s Office filed a plea of nullity and an appeal against the sentence with the Supreme Court. The co-accused H. also filed a plea of nullity and an appeal. 23.  On 26 November 1992 the Supreme Court, upon H.’s plea of nullity, found that there were legitimate doubts as to the expert’s impartiality and partly set aside the Linz Regional Court’s judgment. Due to the principle of “beneficium cohaesionis”, pursuant to Section 290 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Strafprozessordnung), the applicant’s conviction was also set aside. The case was referred back to the Regional Court. This judgment was served on the applicant’s counsel on 3 December 1992. 24.  On 14 April 1993 the Supreme Court allowed the co-accused H.’s request for transfer of jurisdiction to the Wels Regional Court because the concerns about possible bias did no longer exist. On 16 September 1993 the Regional Court remitted the file to the investigating judge for obtaining a new opinion by an expert in accountancy and for further investigations, including the seizure of further accounting documents. On 14 December 1994 the expert requested the submission of these documents, which he inspected on 6 March 1995. On 7 July 1995 the applicant’s bankruptcy and tax records were submitted to the expert. On 7 November 1996 the first part of the expert opinion arrived at the court and the remainder on 16 April 1997. 25.  On 9 August 1997 the file was transferred to the trial court, which, on 1 December 1997, fixed a hearing for 20 January 1998. 26.  The Wels Regional Court held hearings on 20, 27 and 29 January 1998 and on 3, 5 and 10 February 1998, following which it decided to separate from the rest of the case the proceedings against the applicant. At the close of the hearing on 10 February 1998 the Regional Court convicted the applicant of negligent bankruptcy and sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment suspended on probation. Both, the applicant and the Public Prosecutor waived their right to appeal. Thus, the judgment became final on 10 February 1998. On 8 March 2001 the written version of the judgment was served on the applicant’s counsel, contrary to Section 270 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which provides for the service of the written version within four weeks after the oral judgment.