6.  The applicant was born in 1978 and lives in Sofia. He has five children, born in 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2006. 7.  According to a certificate issued by the competent employment bureau, for most of the period between July 1994 and June 2007 he was not in formal employment. According to a document issued by a street‑cleaning company, between 2004 and 2007 it employed the applicant for approximately four months, paying him salaries ranging from 120 Bulgarian levs (BGN) (equivalent to 61.36 euros (EUR)) to BGN 200 (equivalent to EUR 102.26). 8.  In 2001 the applicant and his brother were charged with raping a woman. They were arrested on 18 October 2001 and released on bail on 19 November 2002. Shortly after that they were committed for trial before the Sofia District Court (Софийски районен съд). 9.  At the outset of the first hearing, held on 4 April 2003, the applicant and his brother stated that they were illiterate. The applicant also said that he could not afford to retain counsel. The court appointed counsel for each of them, relying on their illiteracy and grounding its decision on Article 70 § 1 (4) of the 1974 Code of Criminal Procedure (see paragraph 17 below). 10.  At the close of its last hearing in the case, which took place on 10 June 2004, the court, noting the seriousness of the charges against the applicant and his brother, and observing that their counsel had represented them at several hearings, found that the counsel should be paid BGN 200 (equivalent to EUR 102.26) each. 11.  On 10 June 2004 the Sofia District Court convicted the applicant and his brother of aggravated rape. It sentenced the applicant to eight years' imprisonment, but deducted from them the time which he had spent in pre‑trial detention (see paragraph 8 above). Under Article 169 § 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (see paragraph 18 below), it ordered them to reimburse the costs of the proceedings, amounting to BGN 1,934.20 (equivalent to EUR 988.94) for each of them. It issued writs of execution for those sums. 12.  Counsel for the applicant lodged an appeal against the conviction and sentence. In her detailed submissions she challenged the Sofia District Court's findings of fact and the manner in which it had assessed various pieces of evidence. She also challenged the manner in which the court had applied the substantive criminal law and the severity of the sentence that it had imposed. 13.  On 8 November 2004 the Sofia City Court (Софийски градски съд) upheld the applicant's conviction, but reduced his sentence to five years' imprisonment. It ordered the applicant and his brother to reimburse the costs of the appeal proceedings, which consisted of the fees of their court‑appointed counsel. Those amounted to BGN 100 (the equivalent of EUR 51.13) for each of the two accused. 14.  In a final judgment of 23 April 2007 (реш. № 7 от 23 април 2007 г. по н. д. № 672/2006 г., ВКС, II н. о.), given on an appeal by the applicant's brother, a three‑member panel of the Supreme Court of Cassation (Върховен касационен съд) upheld the Sofia City Court judgment in full. As the applicant did not participate in the cassation proceedings, he was not ordered to pay any costs. 15.  At the time of the latest information from the applicant on that point (20 March 2009), he was still serving his sentence. It is unclear whether he worked in prison. According to the Government, there was nothing to prevent him from doing so; he was of an active age and able to work. According to the applicant, he was not given any opportunity to work in prison and was, moreover, unable to do so due to his poor health. A certificate submitted by him shows that between 22 April and 10 September 2008 he was admitted to a prison hospital, where he was treated for pulmonary tuberculosis.