4.  The applicant was born in 1960 and lives in Budapest. 5.  On 23 January 1996 the applicant brought an action in the Budapest Regional Court against the Budapest VII District Municipality, requesting it to find that his personality rights had been infringed by certain employees of the Municipality who had made allegedly untrue statements about him in the press. 6.  On 26 January 1996 the Regional Court transferred the case to the Pest Central District Court. On 10 October 1996 the applicant extended his action and, on 20 November 1996, he identified further respondents. On 10 January 1997 the District Court requested another court to make available to it the case file of a related case. After the latter had been terminated, the file was sent to the District Court on 22 September 1998. 7.  The District Court held hearings on 26 April 1999, 2 February, 14 June and 29 November 2000 and 24 June 2002. 8.  On 30 June 2003 the court invited the applicant to recapitulate his action. 9.  The hearings scheduled for 2 September and 7 December 2004 were adjourned. Meanwhile, on 6 October 2004 the Budapest Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s motion for bias, filed on 8 October 2003. 10.  Further hearings were held on 22 March, 27 June and 3 November 2005. The proceedings are still pending at first instance. 11.  On 25 January 1994 a preliminary investigation was opened against the applicant. He was charged with causing unlawful damage (rongálás). He was also prosecuted for making a false accusation (hamis vád) and attempted subornation to perjury (hamis tanúzásra felhívás kísérlete). On 20 July 1994 and 19 September 1995, respectively, bills of indictment were preferred. In another case of false accusation, a bill of indictment was preferred on 21 December 1995. The applicant was entitled to copies of the bills of indictment under section 146(6) of the (Old) Code of Criminal Procedure. 12.  The Pest Central District Court held hearings on 16 October 1995, 4 January and 20 March 1996. By decisions of 28 February and 21 June 1996, it joined all three cases. 13.  Following a procedural dispute essentially concerning bias on the part of certain judges involved in the case, which started on 19 November 1997, the Supreme Court eventually assigned the case to the Buda Surroundings District Court on 1 March 1999. 14.  On 28 July 1999 a further bill of indictment was preferred against the applicant in yet another case concerning 11 counts of false accusation. On 27 January 2000 these proceedings were joined to the existing ones. 15.  The District Court held hearings on 20 April, 28 August and 17 November 2000, at which apparently only procedural steps were taken. After a hearing on 25 January 2001, at which five witnesses were interrogated, on 31 January 2001 the court acquitted the applicant of all charges save that of subornation to perjury, in respect of which it issued a reprimand. Although one witness, Mr M., whose testimony might have been relevant to this offence, could not be found and three further witnesses summoned had not appeared, the court was satisfied that the applicant’s guilt was proven beyond reasonable doubt by Mr M.’s testimony given during the investigation and by the letters in which the applicant had made the incriminated statement. 16.  On appeal by the prosecution, on 27 November 2001 the Pest County Regional Court partly amended the first-instance judgment and convicted the applicant of one count of false accusation (an offence punishable by imprisonment of up to three years) and one count of subornation to perjury. As a cumulative sanction, it sentenced him to a fine of 30,000 Hungarian forints[1]. In the reasoning, it was specified that:
“[...A]s another mitigating factor, the second-instance court also appreciated the very significant lapse of time [since the commission of the offences] ...” 17.  In reply to the applicant’s petition for review, on 12 June 2003 the Supreme Court reviewed the case and upheld the second instance judgment. In a detailed, lengthy analysis of the merits, it concluded that the applicant’s conviction had been justified.