spect of the well-foundedness of the applicant's allegations. The Court will thus proceed to examine crucial elements in the present case that should be taken into account when deciding whether the applicant's husband can be presumed dead and whether his death can be attributed to the authorities.
55. It clearly follows from the evidence submitted by the parties and uncontested by them that on 2 August 2004 Sultan Khatuyev was detained in Ordzhonikidzevskaya during a security operation and delivered to the ROVD, from which he was taken away in the direction of the Ingushetia department of the FSB. The documents cited by the Government refer to finding persons suspected of involvement in illegal armed groups and responsible for a terrorist act as the aims of the operation, though no formal charges have been ever brought. It does not appear that any records were drawn up in relation to the detention or any other actions carried out in respect of Sultan Khatuyev. He has not been seen since that day and his family has had no news of him. The investigation failed to establish what had happened to him or to charge anyone in connection with the disappearance.
56. The Government suggested that certain documents in the criminal investigation file proved that Mr Khatuyev had been released. However, since none of these documents have been submitted to the Court, it is reluctant to rely on them in order to absolve the Government from their responsibility to account for the fate of detainees last seen alive within their hands (see Akkum and Others v. Turkey, No. 21894/93, § 211, ECHR 2005-II (extracts)).
57. The Government also questioned the credibility of the applicant's statements in view of certain discrepancies relating to the description of the days immediately following the detention. The Court notes in this respect that no other elements underlying the applicant's submissions of the facts have been disputed by the Government. The Government did not provide to the Court the witness statements to which they referred in their submissions. In any event, the fact that over a period of several years the applicant's recollection of an extremely traumatic and stressful event differed in rather insignificant details does not in itself suffice to cast doubt on the overall veracity of her statements.
58. Furthermore, a number of serious and unresolved contradictions about the exact circumstances of the arrest and alleged release of Sultan Khatuyev arise in the documents cited in the Government's observations. While the Court will address these issues in more detail below under the procedural obligation of Article 2, it notes that the official investigation was unable to come up with a coherent picture of these crucial facts or even to question the persons directly involved in his apprehension.
59. Having regard to the previous cases concerning disappearances in Chechnya and in Ingushetia which have come before it (see, among others, Bazorkina, cited above; Imakayeva, cited above; Luluyev and Others v. Russia, No. 69480/01, ECHR 2006-XIII (extracts); Baysayeva v. Russia, No. 74237/01, 5 April 2007; Alikhadzhiyeva v. Russia, No. 68007/01, 5 July 2007; Medova v. Russia, No. 25385/04, ECHR 2009-... (extracts)), the Court finds that in the context of the situation in the region, when a person is detained by unidentified servicemen without any subsequent acknowledgment of the detention, this can be regarded as life-threatening. The absence of Sultan Khatuyev or of any news of him for over five years supports this assumption.
60. Accordingly, the Court finds that the evidence available permits it to establish that Sultan Khatuyev must be presumed dead following his unacknowledged detention by State servicemen.
III. Alleged violation of Article 2 of the Convention
61. The applicant complained under Article 2 of the Conve
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