5.  The applicant was born in 1979. He is currently serving a prison sentence.
6.  On 17 April 1999 the Fier District Court (“the District Court”), following proceedings in which the applicant did not take part, convicted the applicant and his two co-accused of a number of serious criminal offences. It sentenced the applicant to death in absentia.
7.  On 1 June 1999 the Vlora Court of Appeal (“the Court of Appeal”), following appeals lodged by the two other co-accused, upheld the District Court’s decision of 17 April 1999.
8.  On 8 May 2001, following appeals lodged by the applicant’s co‑accused, the Supreme Court upheld the lower courts’ decisions. However, it sentenced the applicant to life imprisonment.
9.  On 1 December 2006 the applicant was extradited to Albania from Italy. He was officially informed of his conviction in absentia on the same day.
10.  On 8 December 2006 the applicant lodged an application with the District Court for leave to appeal out of time.
11.  On 25 January 2007 the District Court dismissed the application, finding that the Supreme Court’s decision of 8 May 2001 had become res judicata and that, consequently, the applicant could not be tried a second time for the same offence.
12.  On 8 June 2007 and 2 July 2010, following the applicant’s appeals, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, respectively, upheld that decision.
13.  On 8 June 2011 the applicant lodged a constitutional appeal against the Supreme Court’s decision of 2 July 2010. He also complained about the unfairness of the proceedings in absentia.
14.  On 21 September 2011, the Constitutional Court, sitting as a full bench, rejected the appeal by a majority. It found that the applicant’s complaint against the Supreme Court’s decision of 2 July 2010 was manifestly ill-founded. As regards his complaint about the unfairness of the proceedings in absentia, and the domestic courts’ dismissal of his application for leave to appeal out of time, the Constitutional Court noted that the applicant had not complained about the domestic courts’ decisions taken in absentia (see paragraphs 6-8 above). It further found that that complaint was in any event time-barred. It also reasoned that in the present case the Supreme Court’s unifying decision no. 1 of 20 January 2011 was applicable (see Izet Haxhia v. Albania, no. 34783/06, §§ 28-31, 5 November 2013). In addition, it noted that although the appeals before the Supreme Court against the lower courts’ decision were lodged by the co‑accused and not the applicant, the Supreme Court had examined and amended the lower courts’ decisions of 17 April and 1 June 1999 also in respect of the applicant.
15.  On an unspecified date in 2007 the applicant lodged a constitutional appeal against the District Court’s decision of 17 April 1999, the Court of Appeal’s decision of 1 June 1999 and the Supreme Court’s decision of 8 May 2001 complaining about his conviction in absentia.
16.  On 21 September 2007 the Constitutional Court dismissed the appeal as having been lodged out of time, considering that the two-year time-limit had started to run as from 8 May 2001. The decision was communicated to the applicant’s lawyer on 25 September 2007.