5.  The applicant was born in 1963. He is currently serving a sentence in a correction facility in Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region. 6.  On 19 August 1999 the applicant was arrested on suspicion of murder. 7.  On 20 August 1999 the local prosecutor remanded him in custody. The duration of the applicant’s detention was extended on several occasions; the applicant unsuccessfully challenged those orders. 8.  On 30 June 2000 the Sverdlovskiy Regional Court convicted the applicant of aggravated murder and robbery and sentenced him to nineteen years’ imprisonment. 9.  On 29 March 2001 the Supreme Court of Russia quashed this judgment and remitted the case to the first-instance court for a fresh consideration. 10.  On 23 August 2001 the Sverdlovskiy Regional Court remitted the case for an additional investigation to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Sverdlovsk Region. The case was then twice more sent to the court and remitted for an additional investigation, being finally referred to the Dzerzhinskiy District Court of Nizhniy Tagil for examination in August 2002. 11.  On 27 September 2002 the Dzerzhinskiy District Court, following adversarial proceedings in the course of which several witnesses, including co-defendants, gave evidence and forensic expert reports were examined, convicted the applicant of murder and theft and imposed a sentence of thirteen years’ imprisonment for murder and five years’ imprisonment for theft, the final sentence being determined by way of partial accumulation as fifteen years’ imprisonment. During the proceedings before the first-instance court the applicant was represented by a court-appointed lawyer. 12.  On an unspecified date the applicant appealed against the judgment of 27 September 2002. 13.  On 20 December 2002 the Sverdlovsk Regional Court upheld the judgment. The applicant appeared before the appeal court via videoconference from the detention facility. He was not represented by a legal-aid lawyer. According to the case file, the prosecutor was present in the courtroom but did not make any submissions. The court put only one question to the applicant during the hearing: it asked whether the applicant wished to amend his appeal. 14.  In July 2003 the applicant lodged a request for supervisory review proceedings. On 5 December 2003 the Sverdlovsk Regional Court left this request without consideration, for the applicant’s failure to respect procedural formalities stipulated by law.