Постановление Европейского суда по правам человека от 02.11.2010 «Дело Сахновский (Sakhnovskiy) против России» [англ.]

-aid counsel who was present in the Supreme Court's courtroom and then allowed them fifteen minutes of confidential communication by video link before the start of the hearing. All persons, both in the courtroom and in the detention facility, left the rooms.
29. The applicant rejected the assistance of Ms A. on the grounds that he needed to meet his counsel in person. The Supreme Court, having noted that the applicant did not rely on any divergence with Ms A. in his defence, did not request her replacement by another legal-aid lawyer, did not accept the Supreme Court's proposal to retain private counsel of his choosing and, taking into account the quashing of the previous appeal decision on the grounds of a lack of legal assistance, rejected the applicant's objection to the counsel's assistance. Accordingly, Ms A. represented the applicant in the appeal hearing.
30. On the same day the Supreme Court examined the merits of the case. It upheld the judgment of the Novosibirsk Regional Court of 20 December 2001, making one correction to the text and excluding one piece of evidence. The substantive findings and the applicant's sentence remained unchanged.

II. Relevant domestic law and practice

A. The Code of Criminal Procedure

31. Article 51 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (in force from 1 July 2002) provides for mandatory legal representation if the accused faces serious charges carrying a term of imprisonment exceeding fifteen years, life imprisonment or the death penalty. Unless counsel is retained by the accused, it is the responsibility of the investigator, prosecutor or the court to appoint legal-aid counsel. Article 52 of the Code provides that the accused can waive his right to legal assistance, but such waiver must be established in the written form. The waiver can be revoked at any moment.
32. Article 373 of the Code provides that the appellate court (суд кассационной инстанции) examines appeals (кассационные жалобы) with a view to verifying the lawfulness, validity and fairness of judgments. Under Article 377 §§ 4 and 5 of the Code, it may directly examine evidence, including additional material submitted by parties.
33. Article 402 of the Code ("Appeal against judgments, decisions and rulings which have come into force") stipulates as follows:
"1. Defendants who have been convicted or acquitted,... and the public prosecutor shall be entitled to request review of court judgments... which have come into force in accordance with the procedure set out in the present Chapter.
2. The public prosecutor's request shall be termed a supervisory-review application (представление). Other parties' requests shall be termed supervisory-review complaints (жалоба)."
34. Article 406 of the Code ("Examination of supervisory-review complaints or applications") stipulates as follows:
"1. A supervisory-review complaint or application shall be examined by a supervisory-review court within 30 days of being lodged.
2. The judge who examines the supervisory-review complaint or application may, where necessary, obtain... any criminal case file...
3. After examining the supervisory-review complaint or application, the judge shall decide as follows: either
(i) to dismiss the supervisory-review complaint or application; or,
(ii) to institute supervisory-review proceedings and to pass the supervisory-review complaint or application for consideration to the supervisory-review court...
4. The President of the [competent] court may decline to accept the judge's decision to dismiss the supervisory-review complaint or application. In this case he shall set aside this decision and give a decision according to paragraph 3 (ii) [above]."
35. Article 412 of the Code ("Lodging of new supervisor

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