5.  The applicant was born in 1983 and lives in Portoheli.
6.  On 12 September 2007 the applicant was convicted of forming a criminal organisation, of – together with others − kidnapping an adult, of robbery committed together with others, and of the theft and illegal possession of a gun, and was sentenced to twenty-two years’ imprisonment by the Nafplio three-member Court of Appeal for felonies (Τριμελές Εφετείο Κακουργημάτων) acting as a first-instance court (decision no. 317/2007). The applicant, who had been in pre-trial detention since 7 April 2006, was represented by a lawyer in the proceedings.
7.  Following the delivery of the judgment, the applicant expressed his wish to lodge an appeal against the decision of the first-instance court and was escorted, handcuffed, by policemen to the registry of the court in order to do so. In the registry there were pre-printed forms for lodging an appeal, which included the following wording:
“In Nafplio, in the Nafplio Court of Appeal today on ... day... and time ... came to me, the Registrar of Nafplio Court of Appeal .... (name), the ... (name) of ... (father’s name) and of ... (mother’s name) who was born on ... in ..., whose profession is ... and resides in ..., street ... no. ... and has the no. ... identity card issued on ... by.... And REQUESTED that this report be drafted declaring that: (he) APPEALS before the Nafplio five-member Appeal Court against decision no. .... of the Nafplio three‑member Court of Appeal by which he was convicted of ... to a total sentence of ... requesting that the decision under appeal be set aside and that he be acquitted from the charge for the reasons he will cite before the Appeal Court.”
8.  Under the above paragraph there was an empty space and then followed the phrases:
“He appoints as his representative the lawyer practising in Nafplio ...(name).
This report was read and confirmed and is signed by the person lodging the appeal and the registrar”.
9.  The registrar completed the pre-printed form with the applicant’s personal data, the number of the decision against which he wished to lodge the appeal, the sentence that was imposed to him and the name of the applicant’s representative. He then signed the report and the applicant was momentarily released from handcuffs in order to sign it as well.
10.  On 7 May 2009 the applicant’s appeal was heard by the Nafplio five‑member Court of Appeal (“the Appeal Court”). The Appeal Court by a majority dismissed the legal remedy as inadmissible on the grounds that no reasons had been included in the report, as required by law (decision no. 113/2009). The President of the Appeal Court did not agree with the majority of the panel, expressing the view that from the phrase “...for the reasons he will cite before the appeal court”, one could easily infer that the applicant was complaining about erroneous assessment of the evidence by the court of first instance.
11.  The applicant lodged an appeal on points of law against the decision of the Appeal Court, arguing that his appeal should not have been dismissed as inadmissible. The applicant submitted that it was standard practice in all Appeal Courts for the defendants to be given a pre-printed form which included the phrase: “because the court of first instance did not assess correctly the facts of the case and declared the defendant guilty of an act he did not commit and for the reasons he will cite before the Appeal Court”. In the instant case, the Nafplio Court of Appeal had printed a form in which the first part of the phrase was omitted and the applicant was not to blame for this omission. He was only given the form to sign and was handcuffed at the time, making it even more difficult for him to read the report thoroughly.
12.  The Court of Cassation dismissed the applicant’s appeal on points of law as unfounded on the grounds that the content of the appeal was the applicant’s responsibility, as distinct from the formalities which were the responsibility of the registrar (decision no. 848/2010). The decision was finalised on 28 April 2010.
13.  The applicant served his sentence in Patras prison until 23 July 2015 when he was given a conditional release.