4.  The applicant was born in 1939 and lives in Zaporizhzhya. 5.  On 20 September 2000 the local prosecutors instituted criminal proceedings against him on suspicion of bribery. Throughout the major part of the proceedings the applicant remained on a written undertaking not to abscond. 6.  Following two remittals of the case for additional investigations, on 31 July 2006 the case was referred to the Ordzhonikidzevskyy District Court of Zaporizhzhya (“the District Court”), which on 11 September 2006 repeatedly remitted the case for additional investigations. On 6 November 2006 the Zaporizhzhya Regional Court of Appeal (“the Court of Appeal”) quashed the above ruling and sent the case to the District Court for trial. 7.  On 12 April 2007 the latter court found the applicant guilty of bribery, sentenced him to a pecuniary fine and a one-year prohibition to hold executive positions and released him from the sentence due to the expiry of the period of limitation. 8.  On 18 June 2007 and 6 May 2008, respectively, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court upheld the above judgment. 9.  According to the Government, in the course of the proceedings thirteen hearings were adjourned due to the applicant’s failure to appear and four hearings due to his lawyer’s failure to appear. The applicant disagreed stating that he had not attended only two hearings due to illness and that he had not been informed of other hearings which he had allegedly failed to attend. The above delays on the applicant’s part protracted the proceedings by five months approximately. Twenty-four further hearings were adjourned due to the witnesses’ or prosecutor’s failure to appear or the absence of the judges. One expert examination was ordered and lasted for about one week. According to the Government, the applicant lodged the appeal in cassation against the decision of 18 June 2007 only on 14 November 2007. According to the applicant, he was served with a copy of that decision with delay.