to determine whether the authorities' omission to afford the applicant an opportunity to make written and/or oral submissions to the supervisory-instance courts in 2001 and 2002, complied with the guarantees of Article 6 of the Convention.
44. In that connection, the Court reiterates 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, judgment of 17 December 1996, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1996-VI, p. 2147, § 22). According to the Court's case-law, the principle of equality of arms requires that each party must be afforded a reasonable opportunity to present his case under conditions that do not place him at a substantial disadvantage {vis-a-vis} his opponent (see, among other authorities, De Haes and Gijsels v. Belgium, judgment of 24 February 1997, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1997-I, p. 238, § 53). The Court also reiterates that the principle of equality of arms does not depend on further, quantifiable unfairness flowing from a procedural inequality (see Bulut v. Austria, judgment of 22 February 1996, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1996-II, § 49, and Asnar v. France (No. 2), No. 12316/04, §§ 24 - 28, 18 October 2007). It is a matter for the defence to assess whether a submission deserves a reaction. It is therefore unfair for the prosecution to make submissions to a court without the knowledge of the defence (see APEH {Uldozotteinek Szovetsege} and Others v. Hungary, No. 32367/96, § 42, ECHR 2000-X). This position is not altered when the observations are neutral on the issue to be decided by the court (see {Goc} v. Turkey [GC], No. 36590/97, § 55, ECHR 2002-V). The Court considers that this principle does not lose its importance when the submissions in question appear to be favourable to the defence.
45. The Court notes that the applicant was not apprised of the 2001 supervisory review proceedings and was not brought to the hearing on 2 July 2001. It also observes that in late November 2002 the applicant was put on notice that supervisory review proceedings had been instituted at the request of the prosecutor. Although the applicant had not been served with a copy of that request and was unaware of its contents, he did lodge his observations in relation to it. However, having not been informed of the date when a hearing would be held, he did so only after the Presidium of the Regional Court had delivered its judgment, on 2 December 2002. The Court also notes that the prosecution was present at the supervisory review hearing and made oral submissions in support of their request for review.
46. Having regard to its case-law on the subject and the material submitted by the parties, the Court considers that the applicant was not afforded an effective opportunity to have knowledge of and comment on the authorities' requests for supervisory review and their oral submissions to the Presidium court, and to plead his own case in adversarial proceedings.
47. In view of the above considerations the Court finds that both sets of proceedings before the Presidium of the Irkutsk Regional Court did not comply with the requirements of fairness. There has therefore been a breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention. In the light of this finding it is not necessary to examine separately whether the provisions of Article 6 § 3 have been complied with.
III. Other alleged violations of the Convention
48. The applicant further complained under Article 8 of the Convention that the colony staff had opened and inspected his letters, and had not dispatched them to addressees. He also complained under Article 7 of the Convention that the Regional Court had incorrectly calculated his sentence. The Court has examined those complaints, as s
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