6 at the relevant time and confirmed the applicant's description of the cell. As regards the certificate signed by officer K., the applicant indicated that the officer in question had not been employed at the remand prison at the time of his detention there.
3. The Court's assessment
55. The Court notes that the parties disagreed as to most aspects of the conditions of the applicant's detention in remand prison No. IZ-61/1. However, there is no need for the Court to establish the truthfulness of each and every allegation, as the case file contains sufficient evidence to confirm the applicant's allegations of severe overcrowding at the remand prison, which is in itself sufficient for finding a violation of his rights set out in Article 3.
56. The Court notes that the parties agreed that the cells in the remand prison were overpopulated, although they disagreed as to the measurements of the cells, the number of beds and the number of detainees held there. In this connection the Court also notes that the data submitted by the Government in 2006 differ from those provided in their further observations of 2008 (see paragraphs 35, 37 and 39 above). The Court further observes that at no point did the Government provide relevant original documents. They submitted that the remand prison records pertaining to the period of the applicant's detention had been destroyed in May 2007 after the expiry of the time-limit for their storage. When commenting on the applicant's description of the remand prison, the Government relied only on the certificates issued by the remand prison administration in 2005 and 2007.
57. As regards the destruction of the relevant documents owing to the expiry of the time-limit for their storage, the Court cannot lose sight of the fact that they were destroyed after it had given notice of the present application to the Government. In such circumstances, the Court cannot accept that the Government have accounted properly for their failure to submit the original records concerning the number of inmates detained with the applicant.
58. In so far as the Government relied on the certificates issued by the remand prison administration, the Court observes that those documents were prepared more than two and four years respectively after the time of the applicant's detention in the remand prison. On several previous occasions when the Government have failed to submit original records, the Court has held that documents prepared after a considerable period of time cannot be viewed as sufficiently reliable given the time that has passed (see, among recent authorities, Novinskiy v. Russia, No. 11982/02, § 105, 10 February 2009). The Court opines that these considerations hold true in the present case. The certificates prepared by the Russian authorities more than two and four years after the events in question cannot qualify as sufficiently reliable sources of data.
59. In view of the above, the Court reiterates that in certain instances the respondent Government alone have access to information capable of corroborating or refuting the applicant's allegations under Article 3 of the Convention and that a failure on the Government's part to submit such information without a satisfactory explanation may give rise to the drawing of inferences as to the well-foundedness of the applicant's allegations (see Ahmet {Ozkan} and Others v. Turkey, No. 21689/93, § 426, 6 April 2004). Accordingly, the Court will examine the issue concerning the alleged overcrowding of the cells on the basis of the applicant's submissions.
60. The Court agrees with the applicant that the cells in the remand prison where he was detained pending trial were constantly overcrowded. The space they afforded did not exceed 2 sq. m per person. On certain occasions it was as low as 0.9 sq. m. Besides, the number of sleepin
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