one to lie face down on the floor. They neither introduced themselves nor produced any documents.
8. The intruders ordered the first applicant to hand over his family members' passports and the family photographs. Upon receiving the documents and the photographs, the men took Aslan Mudayev, Mokhmad Mudayev and the first applicant's nephew Mr Islam A. outside.
9. The first applicant attempted to follow his relatives, but the armed men in the yard threatened to kill him. Meanwhile, the applicant's sons and nephew were put in a grey UAZ car ("таблетка").
10. Sometime later the first applicant managed to go outside and saw a convoy of ten to twelve vehicles, including a grey UAZ car, two or three khaki coloured UAZ-469 cars and an APC (armoured personnel carrier) driving away in the direction of Grozny.
11. On the following day of 30 January 2003 all persons detained during the special operation, except for Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev, were released.
b. The subsequent events
12. Immediately after the apprehension of Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev the applicants and their relatives started searching for them.
13. The applicants' relative, Mr Israil M., who was at the first applicant's house during the abduction, immediately followed the convoy of military vehicles in his VAZ car with two female relatives. On the way to Grozny the abductors' vehicles split into two groups. One of them, comprised of the APC and several UAZ cars, drove in the direction of the nearby village of Znamenskoye in the Nadterechniy district, while the other proceeded in the direction of Grozny.
14. When the group arrived at Znamenskoye, the vehicles drove to the building of the Nadterechniy district department of the Federal Security Service ("the Nadterechniy district department of the FSB") and the Nadterechniy district department of the interior ("the Nadterechniy ROVD"). Some of the vehicles drove onto the agencies' premises.
15. Mr Israil M. and relatives of other men apprehended during the operation in Raduzhnoye decided to wait at the entrance to the FSB building. Several hours later Mr Israil M. managed to talk to the head of the Nadterechniy district department of the FSB Mr Mayrbek Kh. (also known as Mairbek Kh.; in the documents submitted he was also referred to as Mr M.Kh.) The latter told him that he would not release his relatives until two prosecution officials who had been abducted several days ago had been returned. He told Mr Israil M. that he knew about the involvement of the first applicant's other son, Akhmad Mudayev, in the abduction of the two officials. The officer threatened that if within the next two days Mr Israil M. did not return the two prosecutors or bring Akhmad Mudayev to their office, he would hand over Mr Israil's apprehended relatives to military servicemen in Khankala, the main base of the Russian federal forces in Chechnya.
16. Subsequently the applicants and their relatives spoke with Akhmad Mudayev, who told them that he had not participated in the prosecutors' abduction and refused to go to the district department of the FSB.
17. Within the next five or six months Mr Israil M. had regular meetings with Mr Mayrbek Kh. The latter insisted on his demands.
18. On 3 July 2003 the first applicant's elder son Akhmad Mudayev was killed in a skirmish. After that Mr Mayrbek Kh. told the first applicant that at some point Russian military forces had taken Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev from his department under false identities and that he did not have any information concerning the brothers' whereabouts.
c. Information obtained by the applicants about the detention of Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev
19. The first applicant's nephew, Mr Islam A., who had been apprehended with Aslan and Mokhmad Mudayev, was released on 30 January 2003. Mr Islam
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