on Musayev was investigated. The Court must assess whether that investigation met the requirements of Article 2 of the Convention.
199. The Court notes at the outset that most of the documents from the investigation were not disclosed by the Government. It therefore has to assess the effectiveness of the investigation on the basis of the few documents produced by the parties and the information about its progress submitted by the Government.
200. The Court notes that the authorities were immediately made aware of the abduction through the applicants' submissions. The investigation in case No. 12199 concerning Khasan Batayev was initiated on 2 October 2000, that is, two weeks after the abduction. It then took between one and six months to open criminal investigations into the disappearance of the other five men. Such a postponement per se was liable to affect the investigation of a kidnapping in life-threatening circumstances, where crucial action has to be taken in the first days after the event. It appears that after that a number of essential steps were seriously delayed. The files concerning one criminal act were not joined until April 2001 in respect of the first four files, and in April 2005 in respect of the criminal investigation into the abduction of Said-Ali and Kharon Musayev. While it is unclear when the applicants and other witnesses were questioned, the granting of victim status took place only on 25 November 2002 and 15 October 2003. It is obvious that these investigative measures, if they were to produce any meaningful results, should have been taken immediately after the crime was reported to the authorities, and as soon as the investigation commenced. Such delays, for which there has been no explanation in the instant case, not only demonstrate the authorities' failure to act of their own motion but also constitute a breach of the obligation to exercise exemplary diligence and promptness in dealing with such a serious crime (see {Oneryildiz} v. Turkey [GC], No. 48939/99, § 94, ECHR 2004-XII).
201. A number of essential steps were never taken. Most notably, it does not appear that the investigation tried to find out whether any special operations had been carried out at 44 Vostochnaya Street, Grozny, on the day in question, or identified and questioned any of the servicemen who had carried them out.
202. The Court also notes that even though the applicants were eventually granted victim status in the investigation concerning the abduction of their relatives, they were only informed of the suspension and resumption of the proceedings, and not of any other significant developments. Accordingly, the investigators failed to ensure that the investigation received the required level of public scrutiny, or to safeguard the interests of the next of kin in the proceedings.
203. Lastly, the Court notes that the investigation was adjourned and resumed on several occasions and that there were lengthy periods of inactivity on the part of the district prosecutor's office when no proceedings were pending.
204. Having regard to the limb of the Government's preliminary objection that was joined to the merits of the complaint, the Court notes that the investigation, having being repeatedly suspended and resumed and plagued by inexplicable delays, has been pending for many years without producing any tangible results. The Government argued that the applicants could have sought judicial review of the decisions of the investigating authorities in the context of the exhaustion of domestic remedies. However, the Court notes that the effectiveness of the investigation had already been undermined in its early stages by the authorities' failure to take necessary and urgent investigative measures. The investigation was repeatedly suspended and resumed, but it appears that no significant investigative measures were taken to identify those responsible for
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