Tsentralniy District Court. On 22 October 2007 the Tsentralniy District Court set aside the prosecutor's decision, finding that the prosecutor had failed to correct the defects pointed out in the judicial decision of 12 April 2007. In particular, he had not conducted a further inquiry or given sufficient and convincing reasons for the refusal to open criminal proceedings.
31. On 31 March 2008 a deputy Prosecutor of the Volgograd Region referred the case to the Volgograd Regional Investigations Committee with a recommendation to carry out an additional inquiry. It was necessary to question the policemen, the applicant's co-defendants and his neighbours and conduct other investigative measures.
32. On 9 June 2008 the Investigations Committee of the Tsentralniy District of Volgograd refused to open criminal proceedings against the policemen, repeating verbatim the decision of 28 May 2007. It appears that no additional enquiries were made.
33. On 4 September 2008 the Investigations Committee of the Tsentralniy District of Volgograd reconsidered its previous decision and decided to open criminal proceedings into the fact of the applicant's ill-treatment by unidentified police officers.
34. On 3 October 2008 the applicant was granted victim status.
C. Criminal proceedings against the applicant
1. Charges of unlawful possession of arms and forgery
of documents
35. On 30 January 2003 the Voroshilovskiy District Court of Volgograd formally remanded the applicant in custody on charges of unlawful possession of weapons and forgery of identity documents. It found that the applicant did not deny that he unlawfully possessed weapons and that official seals had been found in his apartment. The court referred to the gravity of the charges, the applicant's previous criminal record and the fact that he had no dependants, which gave reason to believe that he might abscond or interfere with the investigation.
36. The trial started on 25 November 2003.
37. On 6 April 2004 the Dzerzhinskiy District Court of Volgograd convicted the applicant as charged and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment starting from 28 January 2003.
38. On 27 July 2004 the Volgograd Regional Court upheld the judgment on appeal.
39. On 28 January 2006 the applicant completed his sentence.
2. Charges of membership of an armed criminal gang, robbery,
infliction of serious injuries and murder
(a) The course of the investigation and the trial
40. On 18 April 2003 the applicant was charged with inflicting serious injuries.
41. On an unspecified date the applicant's case was joined with the cases of five other persons who had allegedly acted in conspiracy with the applicant.
42. On 20 October 2003 the applicant and his co-defendants were charged with organising an armed criminal gang, several counts of aggravated robbery, inflicting serious injuries and two counts of murder.
43. On 12 April 2004 the investigation was completed and six defendants, including the applicant, were committed for trial before the Volgograd Regional Court.
44. The defendants asked for a trial by jury.
45. On 20 April 2004 the Volgograd Regional Court fixed a preliminary hearing for 27 April 2004 to examine the request.
46. On 27 April 2004 the Volgograd Regional Court ordered that the defendants be tried by jury and fixed the opening date of the trial at 24 May 2004.
47. The hearings of 24 May, 28 June and 12 July 2004 were adjourned as a jury could not been formed.
48. On 14 September 2004 the jury was formed and the trial started on 29 September 2004.
49. Until the end of 2004 the court scheduled twenty hearings. Eight hearings were held as planned while five more hearin
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