en at the checkpoint stopped them. The servicemen took their passports and one of the soldiers went with them into the factory building. A few minutes later he came out, took Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov into the building and returned to the checkpoint without them.
8. The applicants' neighbours Mr R.G. and Mr M.A. witnessed Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov being taken into the factory building and did not see them come out. Several minutes later Mr R.G. asked the servicemen at the checkpoint why Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov were still in the building; he did not receive any response. Meanwhile Mr M.A. went to the first applicant's house and informed her and the second applicant about the arrest of Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov at the checkpoint.
9. The first and the second applicants immediately went to the checkpoint and asked the soldiers why Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov had been arrested. They were told that the two men had been taken into the building for an identity check and that they would be released shortly. The applicants decided to wait for the men at the entrance to the building. While they were waiting, a grey military UAZ vehicle with open windows drove up to the factory building. The soldiers opened the factory gates and let the car into the yard. Shortly after its arrival the car left with its windows closed.
10. After the car drove away the second applicant asked one of the soldiers about Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov. The soldier spoke with someone on his portable radio set and told her that the two men had been released from the other side of the factory building.
11. At that time the father of Magomed-Ali Abayev, Mr V.A., arrived at the checkpoint and went to the other side of the building to meet his son and Anvar Shaipov. About five minutes later he returned and told the first and the second applicants that Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov had not left the building. He further informed them that he had met an acquaintance who had been waiting for someone on the other side of the building for two hours and that this man had not seen Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov leaving the factory building.
12. Then the second applicant went to the fourth applicant's house and told her Anvar Shaipov had been arrested. The second and the fourth applicants immediately went to the town centre, where they met the first applicant. In the late afternoon all of them managed to speak to the deputy head of the Urus-Martan district administration, Mr L.M., who told them that Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov had been taken to the "West" group of the Russian federal forces (группировка федеральных сил "Запад") stationed in the village of Tangi-Chu in the Urus-Martan district, and that on 14 September 2000 the applicants' relatives would be brought back to Urus-Martan.
13. In support of their statements the applicants submitted the following: two accounts by the first applicant dated 19 March 2004 and 2 June 2005; an account by the second applicant dated 17 March 2004; an account by Mr R.G. dated 29 March 2004; an account by Mr M.A. dated 2 April 2004; an account by the fourth applicant dated 18 March 2004, on an account by Mr M.-E.A. dated 1 June 2005 and a hand-drawn map of the former clothing factory.
b. The subsequent events
14. On the morning of 14 September 2000 the deputy head of the administration, Mr L.M., told the applicants that he had not been able to find out where Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov had been taken. He suggested that they had been taken either to the main military base of the Russian federal forces in Khankala or to the detention centre of the Russian federal forces in the settlement of Chernokozovo.
15. On 14 September 2000 the two applicant families started a joint search for Magomed-Ali Abayev and Anvar Shaipov. For the first few days t
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