with a knife. As the applicant denied this and Ms K. did not mention a knife in her depositions to the investigator, the domestic courts' conclusion that the applicant had brandished a weapon rested solely on Ms M.'s statement. The Court notes in this connection that the question of whether the applicant had been armed was crucial for the legal characterisation of the applicant's actions as robbery or armed robbery, the latter carrying a more severe penalty (see paragraph 22 above). Given that Ms M.'s statements were of decisive importance for the applicant's conviction, in order to receive a fair trial he should have had an opportunity to question her. The Court also accepts the applicant's argument that he should have been afforded an opportunity to question Ms K., the eyewitness to the robbery, who could have confirmed or disputed Ms M.'s testimony.
41. The Court takes note of the Government's argument that Ms M. and Ms K. had been unavailable for questioning during the trial as Ms M. had left Russia and Ms K. had been looking after her child. It observes, however, that, in view of the importance of the witnesses' testimony to the proceedings, the authorities should have made a particular effort to obtain their attendance. The Court accepts that the domestic courts made a certain effort to secure the attendance of Ms M. and Ms K. They sent them summonses to attend the hearing of 27 May 2003, adjourned that hearing when confronted with the witnesses' failure to appear, and ordered that the police bring them to the courtroom on 17 June 2003. However, as was indicated by the applicant and not disputed by the Government, the police remained passive until the very date of the hearing, when for the first time they visited Ms M.'s flat and contacted Ms K. As for Ms M., the police concluded that she had left Russia merely on the basis of her absence from the address provided during the preliminary investigation and a neighbour's unverified supposition that she had moved out. No effort was made to establish her whereabouts. While the Court is not unmindful of the difficulties encountered by the authorities in terms of resources, it does not consider that tracking down Ms M. for the purpose of calling her to attend the trial, in which the applicant stood accused of a very serious offence and risked up to twelve years' imprisonment (see paragraph 22 above), would have constituted an insuperable obstacle (see Bonev v. Bulgaria, No. 60018/00, § 44, 8 June 2006). As for Ms K., her belated notification of the date of the hearing resulted in her unavailability. If she had been apprised of her duty to testify in advance, she could have made arrangements for the care of her child. The responsibility for her failure to appear therefore rests with the domestic authorities.
42. The Court concludes that the authorities failed to make every reasonable effort to secure the attendance of Ms M. and Ms K. As a result, they never appeared to testify before a court in the presence of the applicant. It does not appear from the materials in the case file - nor has it been argued by the Government - that the applicant had the opportunity to cross-examine them at another time. The applicant was not provided with an opportunity to scrutinise the manner in which Ms M. and Ms K. were questioned by the investigator, nor was he then or later provided with an opportunity to have questions put to them. Furthermore, as Ms M.'s and Ms K.'s statements to the investigator were not recorded on video, neither the applicant nor the judges were able to observe their demeanour under questioning and thus form their own impression of their reliability (see, by contrast, Accardi and Others v. Italy (dec.), No. 30598/02, ECHR 2005-II). The Court does not doubt that the domestic courts undertook a careful examination of Ms M.'s and Ms K.'s statements and gave the applicant
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