ces surrounding the abduction was inconsistent. In particular, the applicants had failed to inform the investigators that the abductors had used the UAZ vehicle and a dog, whereas they had submitted this information to the Court. In the Government's opinion these inconsistencies demonstrated that the applicants' allegations were unsubstantiated. In this connection they referred to the alleged discrepancies in the applicants' information provided to the Court and the applicants' witness statements given to the domestic investigation; however, the Government did not submit these witness statements to the Court. The Government asserted that the crime could have been attributable to illegal armed groups. They pointed out that groups of mercenaries of Slavic origin had committed crimes on the territory of the Chechen Republic and emphasised that the fact that the perpetrators had Slavic features and spoke Russian did not prove that they were attached to the Russian military. They also observed that a considerable number of armaments had been stolen from Russian arsenals by insurgents in the 1990s and that members of illegal armed groups could have possessed camouflage uniforms.
B. The Court's evaluation of the facts
66. The Court observes that in its extensive jurisprudence it has developed a number of general principles relating to the establishment of facts 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, 18 January 1978, § 161, Series A No. 25).
67. The Court notes that despite its requests for a copy of the investigation file into the abduction of Aslan and Aslanbek Tasatayev, the Government produced none 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-VIII (extracts)).
68. 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' sons can be presumed dead and whether their deaths can be attributed to the authorities.
69. The applicants alleged that the persons who had taken Aslan and Aslanbek Tasatayev away on 31 May 2001 and then killed them had been State agents.
70. The Government suggested in their submissions that the abductors of Aslan and Aslanbek Tasatayev may have been members of paramilitary 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).
71. 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 uniforms was able to move freely through military roadblocks during curfew hours and proceeded to check identity documents in several households and then took the applicants' sons away from their home strongly supports the applica
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