o 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).
60. The Government also questioned the credibility of the applicants' statements in view of certain discrepancies in their descriptions of the days immediately following the detention. The Court notes in this respect that no other elements underlying the applicants' submissions of 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 applicants' 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 their statements.
61. Furthermore, a number of serious and unresolved contradictions about the exact circumstances of the arrest and alleged release of the two men transpire from the statements of witnesses 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. There has been no reliable news of Usman Umalatov and Shamad Durdiyev since the date of the arrest. Their names have not been found in any official detention facility records. The Government have not submitted any explanation as to what happened to them after their arrest.
62. Having regard to the previous cases concerning disappearances in Chechnya 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; Akhmadova and Sadulayeva, cited above; and Alikhadzhiyeva v. Russia, No. 68007/01, 5 July 2007), the Court finds that the circumstances in which Usman Umalatov and Shamad Durdiyev were detained can be regarded as life-threatening. The absence of the two men or of any news of them for many years supports this assumption.
63. Accordingly, the Court finds that the evidence available permits it to establish that Usman Umalatov and Shamad Durdiyev must be presumed dead following their detention by State servicemen.
III. Alleged violation of Article 2 of the Convention
64. The applicants complained under Article 2 of the Convention that their relatives had been deprived of their lives by Russian servicemen 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
65. The Government first argued that the complaint is manifestly ill-founded and should be dismissed as such. They further contended that the domestic investigation had obtained no evidence to the effect that Usman Umalatov and Shamad Durdiyev were dead or that any servicemen of the federal law-enforcement agencies had been involved in their kidnapping or alleged killing. The Government claimed t
> 1 2 3 ... 8 9 10 ... 14 15 16
Zaki.ru законы и право
поиск по сайту
каталог документов
добавить сайт Zaki.ru в избранное
Правовые акты международные
Правовые акты Российской Федерации
