5.  The applicant was born in 1949 and lives in Zmiyiv.
6.  On 7 April 2005 the Kyivskiy District Court of Kharkiv found the applicant guilty of theft and of two counts of deliberately causing bodily harm to his wife and G., and sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment for the theft, one year’s imprisonment for deliberately causing bodily harm to G. and seven years’ imprisonment for deliberately causing bodily harm to his wife. Using the rule of absorption of more lenient punishment by a stricter one the applicant was given seven years’ imprisonment as a final sentence.
7.  On 29 November 2005 the Kharkiv Regional Court of Appeal (“the Court of Appeal”) partly amended the first-instance judgment. Having considered that the theft was no longer classified as an offence, the appellate court terminated the proceedings with relation to the theft. In addition, as the applicant had continued to plead his innocence in relation the episode with G. and had objected to closing the proceedings in relation to that matter, and in view of the fact that meanwhile the offence had become time-barred, the Court of Appeal absolved the applicant from having to serve the sentence in respect of the episode with G. The remainder of the sentence, namely a term of seven years’ imprisonment for deliberately causing harm to the applicant’s wife, was upheld by the Court of Appeal.
8.  On 8 May 2007 the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the applicant on points of law as unsubstantiated and upheld the findings of the Court of Appeal.
9.  Between 4 April 2006 and 16 July 2010 the applicant served his sentence at the Romenska Correctional Colony (“the prison”).
10.  According to the applicant, he was detained in overcrowded cells with poor sanitary and hygiene conditions. The unit no. 8 in which he served his sentence consisted of three rooms with a total living area of 75.5 sq. m., a dining room, a shower room and a toilet room. From April to December 2006 the applicant shared his room with fifty other prisoners. As from December 2006 onwards he was confined in another room of the same unit, measuring 48 sq. m and accommodating twenty-six prisoners. No adequate access to sanitary facilities had been ensured: every ten inmates had to share a water tap and a lavatory. Once a week, prisoners were allowed to take a bath.
11.  On twelve occasions the applicant was transported for medical reasons from the prison to an inter-regional hospital and on four occasions to Temnivska Correctional Colony no. 100 in Kharkiv Region. The prison vans used for transportation consisted of two compartments of about 2 to 3 sq. m each, had no windows, and accommodated twelve inmates in each compartment. Likewise, railway carriages used for transporting prisoners consisted of several compartments of 2 to 3 sq. m each, had no ventilation, and accommodated twelve inmates in each compartment. Trips lasted for more than twelve hours in one direction. The applicant referred in this respect to the relevant reports of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment (hereinafter, “the CPT”) in respect of their visits to Ukraine.
12.  According to the Government, the applicant was detained in unit no. 8, in which inmates suffering from tuberculosis were to serve their sentences. He was provided with an individual bunk and bedding. Having relied on certificates issued by the prison authorities in March 2014, attesting to the conditions of detention in the unit on that date, the Government submitted that the unit accommodated forty-two prisoners. The dormitory of the unit was of 75.5 sq. m. and consisted of three bedrooms measuring 10.1 sq. m, 34.8 sq. m, and 27.6 sq. m respectively, which were equipped with necessary furniture. The above-mentioned certificates further attested that apart from the sleeping rooms there was also a shower room, a toilet and a room for reheating food. The Government submitted that the unit also disposed other premises, such as rooms for educational work, storage rooms for food and personal belongings of prisoners and a drying room, which the applicant was free to use between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. each day in order to compensate the scare attribution of space in his bedroom. They relied in this respect on printed copies of various photographs, taken in 2014, allegedly showing some of the above-mentioned premises of the unit. According to them, all areas were in satisfactory condition, were equipped with furniture, stock and household goods. In the shower room there was one water tap per ten inmates and one toilet per twelve inmates. According to the prison’s schedule, the inmates of the applicant’s unit had a bath once per week, and bedding and underwear would also be changed. The Government thus concluded that the applicant was detained in appropriate conditions which afforded him in total no less than 3 sq. m of personal space which was in compliance with relevant minimum standard set in the domestic law.
13.  The Government acknowledged the fact that, on a number of occasions, the applicant had been transported from the prison to different medical institutions. He had been taken in a prison van to the Romny railway station and had then continued his journey in a railway carriage specially equipped for transporting prisoners. However, they could not provide any details relating to the conditions of the applicant’s transportation because the time-limit for keeping the relevant documents had expired and the records had subsequently been destroyed. The Government therefore referred to domestic statutory provisions governing prisoners’ transportation.
14.  On 26 August 2008 the Court invited the applicant to submit copies of documents pertinent to his complaints, including his appeal and appeal on points of law.
15.  In his letter to the Court of 27 November 2008, the applicant stated that his request of 26 September 2008 for copies of the necessary documents had remained unanswered, even though there was evidence that the request had been received by the Kyivskiy District Court of Kharkiv.
16.  According to the Government, in 2004 and 2005, following the applicant’s requests, he had studied the case file in detail and had been served with copies of procedural documents in his case, save for a copy of his appeal on points of law, which was not available in the case file at the time. They provided no factual information as regards the applicant’s requests for documents submitted in 2008.
17.  On 16 July 2010 the applicant’s sentence came to an end and he was released from the prison (see paragraph 9 above). According to domestic law, his access to the case file following his release was not limited. There is no evidence that, after his release, the applicant applied to the relevant authorities with a request to have access to his case file or to have copies of documents made.
18.  The applicant alleged that the prison administration had deliberately delayed sending certain of his letters to the Court, had monitored his correspondence and had withheld documents attached to some of the complaints, which he had asked them to send to the Court. According to the applicant, he had also been persecuted by the administration of the prison for communicating with the Court. In particular, on an unspecified date in 2009 he had been placed in disciplinary detention for fifteen days.
19.  The prosecutor’s office examined the applicant’s grievances and found them to be unsubstantiated.
20.  The Court received all the letters referred to by the applicant with all their enclosures.
21.  The relevant extracts from the reports of the CPT concerning conditions of transportation of detainees in Ukraine can be found in Yakovenko v. Ukraine (no. 15825/06, §§ 59-61, 25 October 2007).