5.  The applicant was born in 1970 and lives in Volgograd. 6.  On 21 October 1999 he was arrested on suspicion of having committed several robberies. 7.  On 10 November 1999 the case against him and three other accused was submitted for trial to the Svetloyarskiy District Court of Volgograd. 8.  On 13 March 2000 the District Court convicted the applicant of theft and several counts of aggravated robbery. On 15 August 2000 the Volgograd Regional Court quashed his conviction on appeal and remitted the case for a fresh examination. 9.  A new conviction was handed down on 23 March 2001. It was upheld on appeal on 9 October 2001 but was set aside on 7 December 2001 by the Presidium of the Volgograd Regional Court by way of supervisory review proceedings. The case was then sent for a new trial to the Krasnoarmeyskiy District Court of the Volgograd Region. 10.  On 21 May 2002 the District Court, composed of judge S., as president, and two lay assessors, held the first hearing. The applicant and two of his co-defendants appeared before the court. At the beginning of the hearing, it was found that all victims and certain witnesses had failed to appear. Messrs. P. and R., victims in the case, did not appear because they lived far from Volgograd. The summons which had been sent to Mr M.Kh., a victim, had not been delivered as he had moved house. Mr M.M., also a victim in the case, was on a business trip and could not attend. Mr V., the fifth victim, and the witnesses defaulted for various reasons. The prosecutor did not appear either. Though all defendants protested against the continuation of the hearing in the absence of the prosecutor, the victims and the witnesses, the court decided to proceed with the trial. The presiding judge read out the bill of indictment and questioned the defendants who all protested their innocence. 11.  On the following day, 22 May 2002, the fifth victim and several witnesses appeared in court. The prosecutor was not present. The presiding judge again questioned the defendants, examined the victim and witnesses and studied documents in the file. The applicant asked the court to summon and examine attesting witnesses who had been present when the victims, in particular Messrs. M.Kh. and M.M., had identified him on a photograph. The court refused. It then decided to read out the written depositions to the investigative authorities by defaulting witnesses and by Messrs. R., M.Kh., M.M. and P. The last three were direct eyewitnesses of the applicant's actions. The defendants and counsel unsuccessfully objected to doing so and insisted that all the victims and witnesses should be examined in open court. After the written depositions had been read out, the applicant expressed doubts as to the credibility of some of them. 12.  On 23 May 2002 the trial court continued reading out of the depositions by the defaulting witnesses and then proceeded to hear the final pleadings for the defence. The defendants and counsel objected to the concluding of the judicial inquiry but their objection was dismissed. 13.  By a judgment of the same date, the District Court convicted the applicant of theft and several counts of aggravated robbery and sentenced him to nine years' imprisonment in a high-security colony. The judgment was based to a significant extent on the written depositions by victims and the report on the identification of the applicant from a photograph by Messrs. M.Kh. and M.M. The court found that the statements made by the four defaulted victims during the pre-trial investigation “confirmed the guilt of all the defendants”. As to the testimonies by the fifth victim and by the appeared witnesses, they concerned circumstances unrelated to the authorship of the incriminated offences, the defendants' alibi and their alleged ill-treatment by the police. 14.  The applicant lodged an appeal. He submitted in particular that the trial court in the prosecutor's absence had assumed the prosecutorial function. He also complained that the court had not examined the victims and witnesses whose testimonies had been of significant importance for the determination of his case. 15.  On 23 July 2002 the Volgograd Regional Court held an open hearing. The prosecutor did not participate. The Regional Court dismissed the applicant's appeal and upheld his conviction and sentence in their entirety. It endorsed in a summary fashion the findings of the District Court and made no comment in respect of the applicant's complaints about the prosecutor's absence from the trial and the alleged failure of the trial court to examine the key witnesses.