6 November 2001 the Dzerzhinskiy (Tsentralniy) District Court of St Petersburg convicted the applicant of stealing and destruction of official documents and attempted forgery of documents and sentenced him to two years' imprisonment starting from 26 November 2001. The court further held that the applicant's detention from 27 September 2000 to 19 July 2001 in the above case should be counted toward the applicant's prison term.
21. On 28 February 2002 the St Petersburg City Court commuted the applicant's sentence to one year and six months' imprisonment.
22. It appears that the applicant completed his sentence in August 2002.
F. The applicant's trial
23. Having studied the case file before the completion of the preliminary investigation, in November 2001 the applicant requested that his case be dealt with by one professional and two lay judges.
24. On 8 January 2002 St Petersburg City Court scheduled the first hearing for 5 August 2002.
25. On 5 August 2002, however, the proceedings were suspended in view of the necessity to search for Zh. - one of the applicant's co-defendants.
26. On 15 December 2002 the proceedings were resumed despite the failure to find Zh. Starting from that date the court was composed of a professional judge, Mr Kurguzov, and two lay judges, Ms D. and Mr S. Prior to that, on 27 September 2002 in accordance with Section 6 of the Lay Judges Act the acting president of the St Petersburg City Court selected 102 lay judges, including Ms D. and Mr S., to sit at the examination of the cases by the St Peterburg City Court; and on 11 November 2002 Judge Kurguzov, to whom the case had been assigned, drew lots between six unidentified lay judges (their names did not appear in the relevant decision) and determined that lay judges Ms D. and Mr S. should sit with him on the bench.
27. The applicant challenged the composition of the bench. He alleged a breach of rules on the appointment of lay judges in that lay judges Ms D. and Mr S. had not been drawn by lot, contrary to the requirements of the Federal Law on Lay Judges of the Federal Courts of General Jurisdiction (Федеральный закон "О народных заседателях федеральных судов общей юрисдикции в Российской Федерации", "the Lay Judges Act"). However, the applicant's challenge was dismissed by the court. No breach of the rules governing the calling of lay judges was established.
28. Of thirty-one hearings scheduled between 15 December 2002 and 19 April 2004 twenty-two were adjourned for various reasons: five due to the submission by the applicant of requests and the prosecution's need to study the case file, three due to the failure of the guard unit to deliver the applicant and his co-defendants to the court, nine because the lawyers were either sick or absent, three due to the necessity to summon witnesses, and two on the court's initiative, on the first occasion because the applicant's co-defendants had agreed to testify at the forthcoming court hearing, and on the second because the applicant had refused to testify.
29. On 19 April 2004 the applicant again challenged the composition of the bench, without success.
30. On 30 April 2004 the St. Petersburg City Court convicted the applicant of aggravated murder, theft and fraud and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
31. On 30 September 2004 the Supreme Court of Russia modified the qualification of the applicant's crime and left the sentence unchanged.
32. At the applicant's request, on 24 April 2008 the Supreme Court of Russia by way of supervisory review modified the qualification of the charges against the applicant and left the sentence unchanged.
II. Relevant domestic law
A. Pre-trial detention and time-limits for trial
33. For a summary of d
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