trict prosecutor's office had not taken some crucial investigative steps. The investigation into Vakhit Dzhabrailov's kidnapping had been opened several weeks after the events and then had been suspended and resumed a number of times, thus delaying the taking of the most basic steps, and that she had not been properly informed of the most important investigative measures. The fact that the investigation had been pending for such a long period of time without producing any known results was further proof of its ineffectiveness. The applicant also invited the Court to draw conclusions from the Government's unjustified failure to submit the documents from the case file to her or to the Court.
B. The Court's assessment
1. Admissibility
67. The Court considers, in the light of the parties' submissions, that the complaint raises serious issues of fact and law under the Convention, the determination of which requires an examination of the merits. Further, the Court has already found that the Government's objection concerning the alleged non-exhaustion of domestic remedies should be joined to the merits of the complaint (see paragraph 49 above). The complaint under Article 2 of the Convention must therefore be declared admissible.
2. Merits
(a) The alleged violation of the right to life of Vakhit Dzhabrailov
68. The Court has already found that the applicant's son must be presumed dead following unacknowledged detention by State servicemen. In the absence of any justification put forward by the Government, the Court finds that his death can be attributed to the State and that there has been a violation of Article 2 in respect of Vakhit Dzhabrailov.
(b) The alleged inadequacy of the investigation of the kidnapping
69. The Court has on many occasions stated that the obligation to protect the right to life under Article 2 of the Convention also requires by implication that there should be some form of effective official investigation when individuals have been killed as a result of the use of force. It has developed a number of guiding principles to be followed for an investigation to comply with the Convention's requirements (for a summary of these principles see Bazorkina, cited above, §§ 117 - 119).
70. In the present case, the kidnapping of Vakhit Dzhabrailov was investigated. The Court must assess whether that investigation met the requirements of Article 2 of the Convention.
71. The Court notes at the outset that none of the documents from the investigation were disclosed by the Government. It therefore has to assess the effectiveness of the investigation on the basis of the few documents submitted by the applicant and the information about its progress presented by the Government.
72. The Court notes that the authorities were made aware of the crime by the applicant's submission on 5 January 2003 the latest (see paragraph 17 above). The investigation in case No. 22015 was instituted on 27 January 2003, twenty-two days after the authorities had become aware of Vakhit Dzhabrailov's abduction. Such a postponement per se was liable to affect the investigation of the kidnapping in life-threatening circumstances, where crucial action has to be taken in the first days after the event. Further, it is not possible to assess whether a number of investigating steps had been delayed, in view of the Government's failure to provide the Court with relevant information (see paragraphs 30 and 41 above), but it is clear that a number of the most crucial investigating measures had not been taken at all. For instance, the investigators did not question the local military commander about those who could have obtained his permission to drive around past curfew; they did not question the servicemen who had been on duty at the ROVD on 3 J
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