tion of the murder and robbery of P.
9. According to a subsequent record of 17 April 2000 signed by the applicant and counsel G., the applicant "confirmed his testimony contained in the record of 15 April 2000".
10. According to the records of subsequent interviews, also signed by the applicant and his representative, the applicant refused to give further evidence and stated that he confirmed his confession, but only in part.
11. The records do not contain any indication of or complaints about coercion or ill-treatment.
12. On 17 April 2000 the prosecutor of the Vyborgskiy District of St Petersburg authorised the applicant's further detention.
13. According to the applicant, he was transferred to remand prison IZ-45/4 in St Petersburg (SIZO No. 4).
14. The Government submitted that the transfer had taken place on 20 April 2000.
2. The applicant's account of events of 15 April 2000
15. In his application to the Court the applicant gave the following account of the events of 15 April 2000.
16. The applicant was escorted for questioning to an office, where he was fettered to the floor with handcuffs and put in an uncomfortable sitting position. The applicant was then beaten up by men who did not state their names.
17. The applicant submitted that they had beaten him "professionally", inflicting blows in such a way as to leave no traces and using, in particular, plastic bottles filled with water. They had also held a knife to his throat, threatened him with death and promised to chop his head off. At first, the officers had beaten the applicant without asking him to do or say anything, but after some time they had invited him to confess. When the applicant refused, they had shown him a written statement of his friend V., who had been arrested in connection with the same criminal case and had "confessed to things he had never done".
18. The applicant submitted that, being demoralised and fearing for his life, he had confessed to a murder and a robbery but had refused to incriminate V.
19. The applicant submitted that he had told his counsel about the ill-treatment but his counsel had failed to react.
20. It does not appear that the applicant requested medical assistance or complained to any domestic authority in connection with the alleged ill-treatment.
B. The applicant's trial
1. First-instance proceedings
21. By a judgment of 5 December 2000 the St Petersburg City Court convicted the applicant of having killed and robbed P. and having stolen his passport. The court sentenced the applicant to eighteen years' imprisonment in a high security prison and the confiscation of his property.
22. By the same decision it acquitted him on a separate count of theft because the prosecution had been based solely on the applicant's confession and the victim's statement. Referring to the record of the applicant's psychiatric-psychological examination, the court ordered his compulsory out-patient psychiatric treatment for drug addiction.
23. The applicant was represented at the trial by counsel G. Throughout the trial they consistently defended the view that the victim had in fact been killed by a third person and not by the applicant.
24. The court rejected this argument by reference to the oral evidence given by three witnesses and a police officer in charge of the investigation and also to the discrepancies and contradictions in the applicant's own statements.
25. The court further cited the applicant's and his co-accused's statements from the pre-trial stage describing in detail the killing and robbery, and held that they "corresponded to the factual circumstances of the case in part, concerning the preparation and execution of the robbery of
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