4.
101. The Court concludes, therefore, that the St Petersburg City Court which convicted the applicant on 30 April 2004 cannot be regarded as a "tribunal established by law" and that there has been a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention on that account.
IV. Alleged violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention
on account of excessive length of proceedings
102. The applicant complained that the length of the criminal proceedings against him had been incompatible with the "reasonable time" requirement of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, which provides, in the relevant part, as follows:
"In the determination of... any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a... hearing within a reasonable time by [a]... tribunal..."
A. Submissions by the parties
103. The Government submitted that the proceedings against the applicant had lasted four years, four months and five days, from 25 December 1999 to 30 April 2004. The preliminary investigation of the case lasted one year and nine months, which was reasonable, taking into consideration the complexity of the case. On 25 December 2001 the case was taken over by the St Petersburg City Court for trial. On 8 January 2002 the first hearing was scheduled for 5 August 2002 due to the workload of the judge and the necessity to select the lay judges. On 5 August 2002 the hearing was adjourned due to the necessity to search for one of the applicant's co-defendants. The proceedings were resumed on 15 December 2002. In this connection the Government pointed out that the separation of the criminal case against the applicant would have not resulted, in view of the specific nature of the case, in facilitation of the court proceedings. The Government further submitted that after the resumption of the proceedings in December 2002 the hearings were adjourned on many occasions. They considered, however, that only the adjournments resulting from the failure to deliver the applicant and his co-defendants to the courtroom can be attributed to the domestic authorities. The Government concluded therefore that the length of the proceedings in the applicant's case did not exceed the "reasonable time" requirement of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
104. The applicant submitted that the proceedings against him lasted four years, nine months and five days from 25 December 1999 to 30 September 2004. The applicant noted the following periods of inactivity of the domestic authorities: two months from 23 February 2001 when the preliminary investigation of the case was completed to 23 April 2001 when the City Court referred the case for an additional investigation; one month from 23 April 2001 to 24 May 2001 when the Prosecutor's Office started the additional investigation; seven months from 24 May to 25 December 2001 during which time the additional investigation was carried out; seven months from 8 January 2002 when the City Court decided to set the commencement of the trial for 5 August 2002 when the first hearing took place; almost four months from 5 August 2002 when the proceedings were suspended to 15 December 2002 when they were resumed; almost three months from 3 July 2003 when the hearing was adjourned until 29 September 2003; and five months from 30 April 2004 when the applicant was convicted by the City Court to 30 September 2004 when his conviction was upheld on appeal by the Supreme Court. The applicant further argued that although his case was not an easy one, it was not especially intricate either: when the case file was transmitted to the trial court it contained eighteen volumes, of which six represented copies of documents from the case file of one of the applicant's co-defendants. The applicant concluded that the domestic authorities did not show particular diligence while examining his case and did not respect the requirement of the reasonab
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