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45. In sum, the Court concludes that a supervisory-review appeal against the judgment of 29 November 2007 was not an effective remedy for the purposes of exhaustion under Article 35 § 1 of the Convention. The Government's objection should therefore be dismissed.
B. Concerning the applicant's victim status
46. The Government claimed, as they had already done in the proceedings before the Chamber, that owing to the reopening of the applicant's case in 2007 the applicant had lost his victim status in respect of his original complaint. Accordingly, any subsequent development should not fall within the scope of the present proceedings and constituted a new case.
47. The Grand Chamber notes that this objection was examined by the Chamber in its judgment of 15 January 2009. The Chamber considered that it was closely linked to the merits of the applicant's complaints under Article 6 of the Convention. The Grand Chamber sees no reason to depart from this approach. Indeed, the assessment of the victim status largely depends on the legal characterisation of the second set of the proceedings as a separate case or, alternatively, as part of the same criminal case. This appears to be the principal subject of controversy. The Court thus prefers to join the Government's objection concerning victim status to the merits of the case and examine them together.
II. Alleged violation of Article 6 §§ 1 and 3
of the Convention
48. The applicant complained that the criminal proceedings against him had been unfair. In particular, he complained that at the hearing before the appellate court in 2002 he had not been provided with legal assistance and that his only contact with the courtroom was by video link. The applicant further complained that in the new appeal proceedings in 2007, following the quashing of the earlier judgment, his rights had not been restored. In particular, he had not been brought to the courtroom in person, despite his requests, and he had been deprived of effective communication with court-appointed legal counsel. The applicant relied on Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (c) of the Convention, which reads as follows:
"1. In the determination of... any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing... by a... tribunal...
3. Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the following minimum rights:
...(c) to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing..."
A. The Chamber judgment
49. The core findings of the Chamber in its judgment of 15 January 2009 can be summarised as follows. It had been acknowledged by the Government and affirmed by the Chamber that the first set of proceedings that ended on 31 October 2002 fell short of the guarantees relating to legal assistance (§ 47 of the judgment). Further, as regards the appeal hearing of 29 November 2007, the Chamber found that "the lack of personal contact with the applicant at the hearing and the absence of any discussion with him in advance of the hearing, combined with the fact that she had to plead the case on the basis of the points of appeal lodged five years earlier by another lawyer, reduced Ms A.'s appearance at the appeal hearing to a mere formality" (§ 50). The applicant's dissatisfaction with the manner in which his legal assistance had been organised was made sufficiently clear to the Supreme Court, and was reasonable and justified in the circumstances. The Chamber found that the applicant could still claim to be a victim within the meaning of Article 34 of the Convention, since "the Supreme Court [had] failed to ensure the applicant's effective legal representation in the appeal hearing that took place on 29 November 2007, as it had in the earlier proceedings" (§ 52). In the operative part of the judgment th
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