5.  The first applicant was born in 1969 and is serving a life sentence in Perekhrestivka in the Sumy region (oblast). The second applicant was born in 1967 and is serving a life sentence in Gorodyshche in the Rivne region.
6.  According to the findings of the domestic courts, in early 2000 Mr A.B. formed an armed gang which included the applicants, Mr Vladimir Zakshevskiy (the applicant in the case of Zakshevskiy v. Ukraine, no. 7193/04, § 11, 17 March 2016), Mr S.S., Mr I.K., Mr A.S. and two others. At the time the first applicant, A.B. and Mr Zakshevskiy were former police officers and S.S. was an active police officer.
7.  The domestic courts subsequently convicted the applicants, Mr Zakshevskiy, I.K. and S.S. of various degrees of participation in attacks committed by the gang in four regions and also of the offence of participation in an armed gang (banditry). The attacks were initially investigated by the authorities as unrelated crimes committed by unidentified people.
8.  The description of the attacks is set out in the Appendix as Episodes 1-7.
9.  On various dates criminal proceedings instituted in the four regions were eventually consolidated into the case initially opened to investigate a series of attacks in and around Kharkiv (Episodes 4-6).
10.  According to the Government, on 29 October 2001 the first applicant was charged in absentia with participation in the Kharkiv attacks, which had been classified as robberies.
11.  On 17 November 2001 the first applicant was arrested in Moscow, Russia. The next day the suspected gang leader A.B. was killed there while resisting arrest.
12.  On 30 January 2002 the first applicant was extradited to Ukraine.
13.  On 4 and 11 February 2002 the first applicant signed two documents explaining in detail his rights as a suspect or accused in the course of the pre-trial investigation, including the right to have a lawyer appointed for him, to consult a lawyer before being questioned for the first time and the right to remain silent. He waived those rights.
14.  On 11 February 2002 the first applicant was questioned in the capacity of an accused, admitted his guilt on the charges of robbery, and confessed to a minor role in the Kharkiv attacks.
15.  On 3 April 2002 the first applicant was questioned in the capacity of a witness, without a lawyer, about the Luhansk murder (see Episode 2 in the Appendix). He denied any involvement in that crime but stated that he had known A.B. since 1998 and that A.B. had confessed to him during their stay in Moscow that he had committed the Luhansk murder.
16.  On 1 July 2002 the first applicant participated in a reconstruction of the attack on Mr and Mrs Va., one of the Kharkiv episodes. The first applicant stated that he and several accomplices had attacked Mrs Va. He also stated that A.S. had shot in Mr Va.’s direction during the attack.
17.  On 10 July 2002 the first applicant was charged with offences connected with the attacks set out in the Appendix, including several murders.
18.  While being questioned on the same day the applicant retracted all his previous statements, claiming that they had been given under physical and psychological pressure.
19.  On the same day, the investigator appointed a lawyer for the applicant after finding that he had to be represented because of the murder charges but could not hire a lawyer himself.
20.  On 11 July 2002 the defence lawyer met the applicant.
21.  In August and December 2000 the second applicant was questioned as a witness about the Luhansk murders and a killing in Donetsk. He denied any knowledge of or involvement in either crime but admitted that he knew A.B., had had a conflict with one of the victims, and that on the night of the Luhansk murder the second applicant had lent his lorry to the victims.
22.  On 14 October 2001 the second applicant was arrested. On the same day he was questioned in the presence of a lawyer hired by his wife. He confessed to participation in the attacks on Mr and Mrs Va. and Mr A.I. and described the active role that the first applicant had played in them. In particular, he stated that the first applicant had taken A.S., armed with a handgun, to the place where Mr A.I. had been murdered (Episode 5).
23.  On 7 November 2001 the second applicant was questioned in the presence of his lawyer about the circumstances of the Crimea attack (Episode 7) and participated in a reconstruction. He described his and Mr Zakshevskiy’s role in the attack, stating that he had arrived at the scene of the crime on a motorcycle with Mr Zakshevskiy. The latter had approached the victims’ car and then the second applicant had heard gunshots. The second applicant had then shot at the ground near the feet of Mr R.M., one of the victims, to scare him.
24.  Subsequently, the second applicant also confessed to participation in in several other attacks. He retracted his confessions later in the investigation.
25.  On 11 November 2001 Mr Zakshevskiy surrendered himself to the police and provided statements to the effect that the second applicant and A.B. had told him in 2000 that they had committed the Donetsk murder and that he had also learned at the time that the first applicant and A.B. had committed the Luhansk murder. He also described the two attacks in Toretsk, the attacks on the shoe sellers near Kharkiv, and the Crimea attack (Episodes 3, 6 and 7). He repeated those statements the next day (see Zakshevskiy, cited above, §§ 10 and 11). In particular, in describing the attack on the shoe sellers, he stated that the applicants had followed the victims in a car while Mr Zakshevskiy, I.K. and another member of the gang had waited in ambush in an Opel Vectra near the road. After being given a signal over the telephone, Mr Zakshevskiy and I.K., wearing traffic police uniforms, had stopped the cars of two groups of victims in quick succession, first a Gazel minivan and then a Mercedes. They had threatened the victims with handguns and taken their cars to a nearby forest. Afterwards, the applicants had arrived and loaded stolen shoes and money into their car.
26.  On 12 and 13 October 2001 Mr G.G. made statements to the investigating authorities in the presence of a lawyer, implicating the applicants in the Kharkiv attacks.
27.  On 28 March, 23 April and 10 July 2002 S.S. was questioned in the presence of his lawyer. He stated that he had been present at the scene of the Luhansk murder in a red BMW and had observed A.B. and the first applicant commit that crime. He also stated that he had helped A.B. and the latter’s “acquaintance” to bring two handguns back from the Crimea.
28.  Arrested in Belarus in December 2001, I.K. was extradited to Ukraine. On 20 March 2002 he, while denying any active role in the crimes, stated in the presence of his lawyer that he had seen A.B. and the first applicant commit the Luhansk murder and witnessed the applicants participate in the attack on the shoe sellers near Kharkiv.
29.  At a later stage of the pre-trial investigation the applicants’ co‑defendants retracted their statements, saying they had been given under physical and psychological duress.
30.  In the course of the pre-trial investigation a number of victims and other witnesses made statements subsequently used in the applicants’ conviction. There was no possibility for the applicants to put questions to those victims and witnesses at that stage or later. The substance of their statements, as given in the trial court’s judgment, is set out in the Appendix.
31.  The applicants and their co-defendants Mr Zakshevskiy, S.S. and I.K. stood trial at the Donetsk Regional Court of Appeal, acting as a trial court (“the trial court”).
32.  On 14 February 2005 the trial court noted that a number of victims and other witnesses had failed to appear and ordered the police to bring Mr and Mrs Va., Mr V.K. and Mr R.K., and R.M. (Episodes 4, 6 and 7 respectively) to court. On 17 March 2005 the trial court ordered the police to bring Mr G.S. and Mr N.K., witnesses to the Luhansk murder, to court on 6 April 2005.
33.  On 6 April 2005 N.K. appeared. However, the hearing had to be adjourned because one of the judges was ill. The presiding judge asked whether the witness would appear at the next hearing. He replied that he wished to confirm the statements he had given in the course of the pre-trial investigation, and that the only point he might be confused about was the make of the foreign car he had seen on the night of the murder, since he was not a specialist. He asked not to be called again, citing his extreme poverty and the long distance to the court.
34.  At a subsequent hearing the court read out reports from the police that V.K., R.K. and R.M. could not be brought to the court because they were not present at the addresses they had given and could not be found. The court also read out the death certificate of G.S. and statements by N.K., O.Va. and S.Va. that they were unable to attend.
35.  The court then sought the parties’ opinions as to whether it would be justifiable to declare that it was not possible to obtain the appearance of those witnesses at the trial and to read out their statements. The applicants’ lawyers did not object although the defendants insisted that the witnesses be questioned.
36.  The court ruled that it considered that it was not possible to have the witnesses attend the trial and proceeded to read out their pre-trial statements.
37.  On 6 October 2005 the trial court delivered its judgment. It convicted the applicants of banditry, armed robbery and related offences of carjacking, aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. It acquitted the applicants of several counts of robbery for lack of proof. It sentenced them to various terms of imprisonment on the charges other than murder. In respect of the murder charges the sentence was life imprisonment, which was also the final sentence for both applicants.
38.  The specific crimes of which the applicants were convicted and the key evidence relied on for those convictions is set out in the Appendix.
39.  Ten pages of the judgment were dedicated to whether the defendants’ pre-trial statements could be used in evidence even though they had been retracted. In concluding that they could be used, the trial court referred in particular to corroborating evidence, including expert reports and physical evidence on the firearms used in the crimes (see Appendix).
40.  A further four pages of the judgment were dedicated to a discussion of whether the defendants’ pre-trial statements had been coerced. In rejecting that allegation, the court stated in particular that: (i) the second applicant’s statements had been made in the presence of a lawyer hired by his wife; (ii) the defendants had changed their statements over the course of the investigation to minimise their own role in the crimes and their culpability, which was inconsistent with their allegation that their statements had been forced on them by the authorities; (iii) a video recording of the second applicant’s interview and of a reconstruction of the crime with him and Mr Zakshevskiy had shown that his statements had been given freely; (iv) two investigations of the defendants’ allegations of undue pressure and ill-treatment conducted by the prosecutor’s office at the trial court’s request had found no proof in support of the allegations, which was consistent with the court’s own conclusions.
41.  In response to the applicants’ allegations of various procedural irregularities, in particular alleged violations of their right to defence, in the course of the pre-trial investigation, the trial court stated that all evidence obtained in violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure had been excluded from the file and the remaining evidence had been obtained in compliance with the Code.
42.  Upon completion of the trial the first applicant began studying the case file. On 12 May 2006 he signed a statement that he had examined the record of the trial in full. Afterwards, he examined the case file on at least five days up to 2 August 2006.
43.  On various dates the applicants lodged appeals and supplementary appeals against their conviction, arguing in particular that the trial court had convicted them without sufficient proof, and based on pre-trial statements given under duress rather than on their testimony in court. They also alleged that their defence rights had been breached in various ways.
44.  In his appeal the first applicant submitted, in particular, that the witnesses G.S. and N.K. had in the course of the pre-trial investigation identified, based on photographs, A.B. as the person they had seen standing on the road at the scene of the Luhansk murder dressed as a traffic police officer. He also submitted that Mr and Mrs Va. had given descriptions of the attackers in their pre-trial statements which had not fitted him.
45.  The second applicant submitted, in particular, that in the course of his pre-trial interviews R.M. had stated that he clearly remembered the attackers, would be able to recognise them by their faces and voices and had provided a description which had enabled an identikit picture to be prepared. However, that picture, in the second applicant’s opinion, had not looked like him.
46.  On 19 October 2006 the Supreme Court dismissed the applicants’ arguments as unsubstantiated and upheld their conviction and sentence. It stated, in particular, that the trial court findings that the applicant were guilty were supported by various evidence, in particular the statements of witnesses G.S. and N.K., Mr and Mrs Va. and R.M.