d as life-threatening. The absence of Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev or of any news of them for many years supports this assumption. Furthermore, the Government have failed to provide any explanation as to the disappearance of the applicants' relatives after their arrest, and the official investigation into their abduction, which has lasted for more than six years, has produced no tangible results.
93. The Court further notes that, regrettably, it has been unable to benefit from the results of the domestic investigation owing to the Government's failure to disclose most of the documents from the file (see paragraph 72 above). Nevertheless, it is clear that the investigation did not identify the perpetrators of the kidnapping.
94. Accordingly, the Court finds that the evidence available permits it to establish that Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev must be presumed dead following their unacknowledged detention by State servicemen.
III. Alleged violation of Article 2 of the Convention
95. The applicants complained under Article 2 of the Convention that their relatives had been deprived of their lives by State agents and that the domestic authorities had failed to carry out an effective investigation of the matter. Article 2 reads:
"1. Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law.
2. Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:
(a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;
(b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained;
(c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection."
A. The parties' submissions
96. The Government contended that the domestic investigation had obtained no evidence to the effect that Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev were dead or that any servicemen of the federal law-enforcement agencies had been involved in their kidnapping or alleged killing. The Government claimed that the investigation into the kidnapping of the applicants' relatives met the Convention requirement of effectiveness, as all measures available under national law were being taken to identify those responsible.
97. The applicants argued that Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev had been detained by State servicemen and should be presumed dead in the absence of any reliable news of them for years. The applicants also argued that the investigation had not met the effectiveness and adequacy requirements laid down by the Court's case-law. The applicants pointed out that by January 2005 the district prosecutor's office had not taken certain crucial investigative steps. The investigation into Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev's kidnapping had been opened several months 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 the relatives had not been properly informed of the most important investigative measures. The fact that the investigation had been ongoing for such a long period of time without producing any known results was further proof of its ineffectiveness. They also invited the Court to draw conclusions from the Government's unjustified failure to submit the documents from the case file to them or to the Court.
B. The Court's assessment
1. Admissibility
98. 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 exa
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