remedies must be applied with some degree of flexibility and without excessive formalism. The Court noted that the stressful situation in which persons held in custody often found themselves, together with an absence of legal training and professional legal assistance, might be taken into account when deciding whether an applicant was exempted from pursuing a formal channel of judicial appeal (ibid, § 66).
46. Shortly after the Belevitskiy judgment had been adopted, the Court identified another situation which called for a more flexible application of the exhaustion rule. The Court again examined a case in which the applicants had not brought a formal complaint against the prosecutor's refusal to institute criminal proceedings against police officers, but had opted to raise the ill-treatment complaint before the trial and appeal courts. Applying the approach adopted in the above cited Belevitskiy case, the Court found as follows:
"since the same domestic courts, to which a formal criminal complaint laid, examined the substance of the applicants' complaints about the ill-treatment in the police station and the prosecutor's inactivity, the applicants cannot be said to have failed to exhaust domestic remedies. It follows that the complaint cannot be declared inadmissible for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies." (see Akulinin and Babich v. Russia, No. 5742/02, § 33, 2 October 2008)
47. The Court considers that this finding is fully applicable to the circumstances of the present case. The Court firstly observes that the applicant raised an ill-treatment complaint before the Rudnichniy District Court during the trial proceedings against him, complaining to the trial court about police brutality and the prosecutor's indifference to his claims. At that time the prosecutor's decision of 18 April 2003, refusing institution of criminal proceedings, was still valid and a new round of the prosecution inquiry had not yet been authorised (see paragraphs 14 and 20 above). The Court notes that the District Court accepted the applicant's complaint alleging ill-treatment and the inadequacy of the prosecutor's investigation into the events in question. It took cognisance of the merits of the applicant's claims, enquired of the prosecutor's office about the investigation, examined the reasonableness of the assistant prosecutor's decision of 18 April 2003 and based its conclusion on the findings made in that decision, taking the view that the assistant prosecutor's assessment could not be said to be wrong. The court's reasoning was not confined to the compatibility of the applicant's complaint with the formal requirements.
48. Furthermore, the applicant and his lawyer once again drew the attention of the domestic authorities to the alleged violation of the applicant's rights by raising the ill-treatment complaint in their statements of appeal against the judgment of 15 September 2003. The Court does not lose sight of the fact that neither the applicant nor his lawyer cited the assistant prosecutor's decision of 13 October 2003, while complaining about the prosecutor's failure to conduct an effective inquiry. However, the Court does not find it surprising in a situation where, as is apparent from the materials submitted by the parties (see paragraph 19 above), the decision of 13 October 2003 had not yet been notified to the applicant. The Kemerovo Regional Court, on appeal, examined the merits of the applicant's complaint and dismissed it, endorsing the reasons given by the District Court.
49. The Court observes that the Government did not argue that, in pursuing this avenue of judicial review, the applicant had removed from the courts the option of examining the relevant issues. The Court reiterates that the applicant learned about the decision of 13 October 2003 after the trial. The Court does not find it unreason
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