plaint is not manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 of the Convention. It is not inadmissible on any other grounds. It must therefore be declared admissible.
B. Merits
1. Arguments by the parties
135. The Government argued that the applicant had been charged with many particularly serious criminal offences. He was moreover suspected of being an active member of an armed criminal gang committing crimes on a regular basis and presenting an increased danger to society. Referring to the case of Contrada v. Italy (24 August 1998, § 67, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-V), they submitted that his membership of a mafia-type organisation with a rigid hierarchical structure and substantial power of intimidation had complicated and lengthened the criminal proceedings. It had been necessary to hold the applicant in custody during the investigation and trial to prevent his interfering with witnesses and jurors who lived in the same area and were not segregated from society. The domestic courts had justified the extensions of his detention by reference to his previous criminal record, the absence of a permanent place of residence, employment or dependants, and the defence's failure to produce material showing that the applicant could not remain in the detention facility conditions. The Government considered that the applicant's detention had been founded on "relevant and sufficient" reasons.
136. The applicant submitted that the domestic courts had not advanced "relevant and sufficient" reasons to hold him in custody. They had relied essentially on the gravity of the charges. The only other ground for his detention had been the domestic courts' finding that he could impede the investigation. That finding had not been supported by any evidence and, moreover, had been absurd. Before 28 January 2006 the applicant had been serving his sentence after conviction in an unrelated criminal case on charges of unlawful possession of arms and forgery of documents. His imprisonment had made it impossible for him to interfere with the proceedings.
137. The applicant further argued that by requiring him to produce material showing that he could not remain in detention the authorities had shifted the burden of proof onto him, contrary to Article 5 § 3 of the Convention. He had shown that he had a permanent place of residence, employment and family. However, the domestic authorities had continued to extend his detention, without demonstrating the existence of specific facts in support of their conclusion that he might abscond or interfere with witnesses or jurors. As to his previous criminal record, the domestic courts had never referred to it in their detention orders. In any event, he had been convicted only once in 1995 and his criminal record had since been purged.
2. The Court's assessment
(a) General principles
138. The Court reiterates that the persistence of reasonable suspicion that the person arrested has committed an offence is a condition sine qua non for the lawfulness of the continued detention. However after a certain lapse of time it no longer suffices. In such cases, the Court must establish whether the other grounds given by the judicial authorities continued to justify the deprivation of liberty. Where such grounds were "relevant" and "sufficient", the Court must also ascertain whether the competent national authorities displayed "special diligence" in the conduct of the proceedings (see Labita v. Italy [GC], No. 26772/95, §§ 152 and 153, ECHR 2000-IV).
139. The presumption is in favour of release. As the Court has consistently held, the second limb of Article 5 § 3 does not give judicial authorities a choice between either bringing an accused to trial within a reasonable time or granting him provisional release pending trial. Until his conviction
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