not have been criminals. The Government further alleged that the applicants' description of the circumstances surrounding the abduction was inconsistent. In particular, the witnesses were unable to provide a detailed description of the uniforms worn by the abductors and they had been inconsistent in their description of the number of APCs used by the abductors.
B. The Court's evaluation of the facts
109. The Court observes that in its extensive jurisprudence it has developed a number of general principles relating to the establishment of matters in dispute, in particular when faced with allegations of disappearance under Article 2 of the Convention (for a summary of these, see Bazorkina v. Russia, No. 69481/01, §§ 103 - 109, 27 July 2006). The Court also notes that the conduct of the parties when evidence is being obtained has to be taken into account (see Ireland v. the United Kingdom, § 161, Series A No. 25).
110. The Court notes that despite its requests for a copy of the file of the investigation into the abduction of Artur Akhmatkhanov, the Government produced only a part of the documents from the case file. The Government referred to Article 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Court observes that in previous cases it has already found this explanation insufficient to justify the withholding of key information requested by the Court (see Imakayeva v. Russia, No. 7615/02, § 123, ECHR 2006-XIII (extracts)).
111. In view of this, and bearing in mind the principles referred to above, the Court finds that it can draw inferences from the Government's conduct in respect of the well-foundedness of the applicants' allegations. The Court will thus proceed to examine crucial elements in the present case that should be taken into account when deciding whether the applicants' relative can be presumed dead and whether his death can be attributed to the authorities.
112. The applicants alleged that the persons who had taken Artur Akhmatkhanov away on 2 April 2003 and then killed him were State agents. The Government did not dispute any of the factual elements underlying the application and did not provide any other explanation of the events.
113. The Government suggested in their submissions that the abductors of Artur Akhmatkhanov may have been members of criminal groups. However, this allegation was not specific and the Government did not submit any material to support it. The Court would stress in this regard that the evaluation of the evidence and the establishment of the facts is a matter for the Court, and it is incumbent on it to decide on the evidentiary value of the documents submitted to it (see {Celikbilek} v. Turkey, No. 27693/95, § 71, 31 May 2005).
114. The Court notes that the applicants' allegation is supported by the witness statements collected by the applicants and by the investigation. It finds that the fact that a large group of armed men in uniform in broad daylight, equipped with military vehicles, was able to move freely in the town, cordon off an area and open intensive gunfire strongly supports the applicants' allegation that these were State servicemen conducting a security operation. In their application to the authorities the applicants from the very beginning consistently maintained that Artur Akhmatkhanov had been detained by servicemen, and requested the investigation to look into that possibility (see paragraphs 36, 39, 40, 42, 45, 52, 53 and 64 above). The domestic investigation also accepted factual assumptions as presented by the applicants (see paragraphs 45, 50, 61, 76, 85 and 88 above) and took steps to check whether law-enforcement agencies were involved in the kidnapping (see paragraph 51 and 80 above) but it does not appear that any serious steps were taken to that end.
115. The Government questioned the credibility of the applicants' statement of t
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