afforded ample opportunities to bring complaints against the length of the proceedings before the Prosecutor or before the court, and the domestic authorities did not hinder the exercise of the applicant's right in any way.
161. The applicant submitted that the criminal proceedings against him lasted six years and nine months. During this time the domestic court passed three sentences, two of them having been found unlawful and quashed on appeal. The applicant argued that certain delays were also attributable to the failure of the victims and prosecution witnesses to appear before the court. By his third trial the applicant, being detained in appalling conditions, was particularly interested in the prompt examination of his case, and his complaints were mainly directed against the delays. The applicant also maintained his complaint under Article 13.
B. The Court's assessment
1. Admissibility
162. The Court notes that this complaint is not manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 of the Convention and is not inadmissible on any other grounds. It must therefore be declared admissible.
2. Merits
(a) Period to be taken into consideration
163. The Court reiterates that the period to be taken into consideration in determining the length of criminal proceedings begins with the day on which a person is "charged" within the autonomous and substantive meaning to be given to that term. It ends with the day on which a charge is finally determined or the proceedings are discontinued (see, among many authorities, Rokhlina, cited above, § 81).
164. The period to be taken into consideration in the present case began on 24 March 1999 when the charges of kidnapping, unlawful entry into a home and extortion were brought against the applicant and ended on 10 March 2005 when his conviction became final. It follows that the period to be taken into consideration has lasted five years, eleven months and eighteen days. This period spanned the investigation stage and two levels of jurisdiction, the trial court and the court of appeal having examined the case on three occasions.
(b) The reasonableness of the length of proceedings
165. The Court reiterates that the reasonableness of the length of the proceedings is to be assessed in the light of the particular circumstances of the case, regard being had to the criteria laid down in the Court's case-law, in particular the complexity of the case, the applicant's conduct and the conduct of the competent authorities. On the latter point, what is at stake for the applicant also has to be taken into consideration (see, among many other authorities, Korshunov v. Russia, No. 38971/06, § 70, 25 October 2007; Rokhlina, cited above, § 86; and Nakhmanovich, cited above, § 95).
166. The Court accepts that the involvement of five co-defendants in the proceedings in itself made the trial sufficiently complex. However, in the Court's view, the complexity of the case does not suffice, in itself, to account for the length of the proceedings. Moreover, the fact that the applicant was held in custody required particular diligence on the part of the courts dealing with the case to administer justice expeditiously (see Panchenko, cited above, § 133, and Kalashnikov, cited above, § 132).
167. As regards the applicant's conduct, the Court notes the Government's argument that throughout the domestic court proceedings the applicant filed numerous requests in connection with his case, both during his trial and between hearings. It further notes that on many occasions the hearings were adjourned because the applicant sought replacement of the legal-aid counsel assigned to him by the domestic authorities. In this connection, the Court observes that Article 6 does not require a person charged with a criminal
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