2 SISOJEVA AND OTHERS v. LATVIA JUDGMENT 3. The applicants alleged, in particular, that the refusal of the Latvian authorities to regularise their stay in Latvia despite their long period of residence in the country amounted to a violation of their right to respect for their private and family life under Article 8 of the Convention. 4. The application was allocated to the Second Section of the Court (Rule 52 § 1 of the Rules of Court). On 1 November 2001 the Court changed the composition of its Sections (Rule 25 § 1). This case was assigned to the newly composed First Section (Rule 52 § 1). Within that Section, the Chamber that would consider the case (Article 27 § 1 of the Convention) was constituted as provided in Rule 26 § 1. 5. By a decision of 28 February 2002 the Chamber declared the application admissible with regard to Mrs Svetlana Sisojeva, Mr Arkady Sisojev and Miss Aksana Sisojeva. It rejected Mrs Tatjana Vizule's complaints as manifestly ill-founded. 6. In a letter of 11 April 2002 the applicants informed the Court that the first applicant had been questioned by the police on the subject of their application to the Court. The applicants therefore requested the Court to indicate interim measures to the Government under Rule 39. On 30 May 2002 the Chamber decided not to apply Rule 39, but to request the Government to submit their observations as to whether there had been a breach of the last sentence of Article 34 of the Convention. 7. The applicants and the Government each filed written observations on the merits (Rule 59 § 1). The parties replied in writing to each other's observations. In addition, observations were received from the Russian Government, who had exercised their right to intervene (Article 36 § 1 of the Convention and Rule 44). 8. A hearing on the merits took place in public in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on 19 September 2002 (Rule 59 § 3). On the same day, the Chamber declared admissible the applicants' additional complaint based in substance on the last sentence of Article 34 of the Convention. 9. As the seat of the judge elected in respect of Latvia was vacant, the President of the Chamber invited the Government on 7 October 2004 to indicate whether they wished to appoint to sit as judge either another elected judge or an ad hoc judge who possessed the qualifications required by Article 21 § 1 of the Convention. In a letter of 8 November 2004 the Government appointed Mrs J. Briede as ad hoc judge (Article 27 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 29 § 1). 10. On 29 March 2005 the President of the Chamber informed the Government of the Court's decision not to include in the case file the additional observations submitted by fax on 22 March 2005, on the ground that the Government had submitted them to the Court outside the time-limit for submission of written pleadings (Rule 38 § 1).