of 14 February 2000, which declared Article 377 § 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure incompatible with the Constitution, was adopted after the supervisory review court's decision of 27 January 2000 in the applicant's case. In the course of new supervisory review proceedings the applicant was informed of the hearing on 27 November 2003 and served with a copy of a decision to initiate the proceedings. The Government concluded that the complaints should be rejected as manifestly ill-founded.
27. The applicant maintained his complaints. He submitted that the quashing of the final judgment of 24 September 1999 violated the principle of legal certainty because he was committed to trial again and had to endure anxiety about his fate. Furthermore, the quashing of the judgment was groundless. The applicant emphasised that had it not been for the quashing of the judgment of 24 September 1999, his original conviction would have been annulled on the expiration of the six-month probation period on 1 April 2000 and he would have retained his right to benefit from an application of the amnesty act, as is possible once during a lifetime. The applicant also complained that the Presidium of the Rostov Regional Court did not inform him or his counsel about the application for supervisory review or the hearing of 27 January 2000.
B. The Court's assessment
28. The Court notes at the outset that the requirements of Article 6 § 3 are to be seen as particular aspects of the right to a fair trial guaranteed by Article 6 § 1, and therefore the applicant's complaints under Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 should be examined together (see Vacher v. France, 17 December 1996, § 22, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1996-VI).
29. The Court has previously examined cases raising complaints under the Convention in relation to the quashing of a final judicial decision (see Nikitin v. Russia, No. 50178/99, ECHR 2004-VIII; Bratyakin v. Russia (dec.), No. 72776/01, 9 March 2006; Fadin, No. 58079/00, §§ 30 - 37, 27 July 2006; and Radchikov v. Russia, No. 65582/01, §§ 54 - 55, 24 May 2007). It reiterates that the mere possibility of reopening a criminal case is prima facie compatible with the Convention, including the guarantees of Article 6. However, the actual manner in which it is used must not impair the very essence of a fair trial. In other words, the power to reopen criminal proceedings must be exercised by the authorities so as to strike, to the maximum extent possible, a fair balance between the interests of the individual and the need to ensure the effectiveness of the system of criminal justice (see Nikitin, cited above, §§ 54 - 61). In the specific context of supervisory review, the Convention requires that the authorities respect the binding nature of a final judicial decision and allow the resumption of criminal proceedings only if serious legitimate considerations outweigh the principle of legal certainty (see Bratyakin, cited above).
30. The Court notes that the Presidium of the Rostov Regional Court granted the prosecutor's application for supervisory review and quashed the judgment of 24 September 1999 on the grounds of the wrong assessment of evidence and disagreement with the court's conclusions on the merits of the case. It follows that the grounds for reopening the proceedings were based neither on new facts nor on serious procedural defects, but rather on disagreement with the assessment given by the lower instance.
31. The Court also notes that the prosecutor brought the request for supervisory review having previously dispensed with an ordinary cassation appeal that could be lodged on grounds identical to those for an appeal under the domestic law (see paragraph 17 above). The Court has already found such an arrangement in itself to be conducive to the protection of legal certainty, as it may in certain cases lead to a situation where the s
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