during the pre-trial investigation the applicant had complained of ill-treatment but he had never linked it to the confession. The domestic judicial authorities thus reasonably found his confession admissible evidence, as there had been no ground for the applicant to be afraid of abuse by the police officers.
2. The applicant
72. The applicant underlined that he had been convicted on the basis of his pre-trial self-incriminating statements only, without any real evidence of his involvement in the crime. He complained about ill-treatment both during pre-trial and trial investigations; however the courts failed to establish a cause and effect relationship between his guilty plea and bodily injuries. He found ludicrous the Kostroma Court's finding that he had been beaten but his confession had been obtained "under circumstances which excluded any physical or mental pressure".
B. The Court's assessment
1. Admissibility
73. The Court notes that this complaint is not manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 of the Convention. It further notes that it is not inadmissible on any other grounds. It must therefore be declared admissible.
2. Merits
(a) General principles established under the Court's case-law
74. The Court reiterates that it is not its function to deal with errors of fact or of law allegedly committed by a national court unless and in so far as they may have infringed rights and freedoms protected by the Convention. While Article 6 guarantees the right to a fair hearing, it does not lay down any rules on the admissibility of evidence as such, which is primarily a matter for regulation under national law (see Schenk v. Switzerland, 12 July 1988, §§ 45 - 46, Series A No. 140, and Heglas v. the Czech Republic, No. 5935/02, § 84, 1 March 2007). It is therefore not the role of the Court to determine, as a matter of principle, whether particular types of evidence - for example, evidence obtained unlawfully in terms of domestic law - may be admissible or, indeed, whether the applicant was guilty or not. The question which must be answered is whether the proceedings as a whole, including the way in which the evidence was obtained, were fair. This involves an examination of the "unlawfulness" in question and, where violation of another Convention right is concerned, the nature of the violation found (see Khan v. the United Kingdom, No. 35394/97, § 34, ECHR 2000-V, and P.G. and J.H. v. the United Kingdom, No. 44787/98, § 76, ECHR 2001-IX).
75. Particular considerations apply in respect of the use in criminal proceedings of evidence recovered by a measure found to be in breach of Article 3 of the Convention, even if the admission of such evidence was not decisive in securing the conviction. The use of such evidence, obtained as a result of a violation of one of the core rights guaranteed by the Convention, raises serious issues as to the fairness of the proceedings (see Jalloh v. Germany [GC], No. 54810/00, §§ 99 and 104, ECHR 2006-...; {Gocmen} v. Turkey, No. 72000/01, § 73, 17 October 2006; and Harutyunyan v. Armenia, No. 36549/03, § 63, ECHR 2007-...).
(b) Application of those principles to the present case
76. In the present case the Court notes that the Kostroma Regional Court, which was seized of the criminal proceedings for murder against the applicant, went to considerable lengths in response to the applicant's complaints of ill-treatment. It ordered the prosecuting authorities to carry out an inquiry into the applicant's complaints, and appointed additional comprehensive medical examinations to rectify discrepancies between various medical documentation (see paragraphs 9, 22, 26 and 28 above).
77. On 27 December 2002, when the applicant was convicted, the Kostroma Court had before it the
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