Legislation in question: The provisions of part 1 of Article 1 of the Federal law “On Compensation for the Violation of the Right to Trial Within Reasonable Time or the Right to the Enforcement of a Court Act Within Reasonable Time” and part 3 of Article 61 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Legal issue: The constitutionality of denial to consider an application for the compensation for the violation of “the right to trial within a reasonable time” submitted by a person who was not deemed to be a victim for the purposes of criminal prosecution (also for the reason of its launching being denied), and a person who was deemed to be a victim, if from the moment of their application regarding the crime a considerable term has elapsed, which is commensurate with prescription terms for criminal prosecution, the extinction of which was a ground to refuse launching of a criminal proceedings or termination of criminal proceedings.
Ratio decidendi: The Court deemed the contested provisions to be not contradicting the Constitution, but at the same time it set out the conditions under which the returning of the application for such compensation would be inadmissible. For example, the applicant should expose all the circumstances known to him, which have influenced, in his view, the duration of proceedings in the case concerned. The applicants may be refused the right to apply for compensation only if a court or another competent authority has taken all the necessary measures for timely completion of proceedings and the identification of suspects (or accused).
