on the certificate because it was dark and the latter was covering it with his fingers. Having showed the certificate the man told the third applicant that he was not going to identify himself because "if (the third applicant) fell into the hands of the FSB he would tell them everything". While the man was talking, the third applicant noticed two grey VAZ vehicles and a white VAZ vehicle on the opposite side of the street. The man offered to give the third applicant the name of one of Bashir Mutsolgov's abductors in exchange for USD 5,000. The third applicant asked him to give the name of the officer who had shown Ch. a special permit at the GAI station, thinking that Ch. would be able to identify that officer during an eventual confrontation. The man agreed and the third applicant gave him USD 2,000 and Bashir Mutsolgov's picture, with the third applicant's mobile number written on its reverse side. The remainder of the amount was to be paid on receipt of the information.
22. On 18 December 2004 the third applicant allegedly received a call on his mobile. A man who did not identify himself told him that the person who had abducted Bashir Mutsolgov and shown the special permit at the GAI station was L.T., an officer of the FSB department in Kostroma. About two months later an unidentified person visited the third applicant at night to obtain the remaining USD 3,000 and allegedly told the third applicant that L.T. was serving in the FSB with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
23. In their search for Bashir Mutsolgov the applicants also contacted, both in person and in writing, various official bodies, such as the Russian President, the Deputies of the Russian State Duma, the Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation for Ensuring Human Rights and Freedoms in the Republic of Ingushetia, the administration of the Republic of Ingushetia and departments of the interior and prosecutors' offices at different levels, describing in detail the circumstances of their relative's abduction and asking for help in establishing his whereabouts. The applicants retained copies of a number of those letters and submitted them to the Court.
(b) The official investigation into Bashir Mutsolgov's disappearance
24. Following the applicants' complaint about Bashir Mutsolgov's abduction, at about 6 p.m. on 18 December 2003 two law-enforcement officers arrived at the applicants' house. They introduced themselves as the head of the local department of the fight against organised crime (the RUBOP) and the district police officer. The officers interviewed an unspecified number of witnesses to the abduction of Bashir Mutsolgov.
25. According to the third applicant, on the same day he went to the Karabulak town prosecutor's office ("the town prosecutor's office") to submit a written complaint about his brother's abduction. He was received by investigator O., who refused to accept his complaint and first called, in the third applicant's presence, the FSB department in Ingushetiya and asked them whether their officials had carried out special operations in Karabulak. O. then allegedly asked his interlocutor on the phone whether he could accept the third applicant's complaint about the abduction of his brother. O. then told the third applicant that, according his interlocutor, the FSB department in Ingushetiya had not carried out any special operations or arrests in Karabulak and that he had been allowed to accept the third applicant's complaint.
26. On 19 December 2003 the prosecutor's office of the Ingushetiya Republic ("the republican prosecutor's office") forwarded the third applicant's complaint about the abduction of Bashir Mutsolgov to the town prosecutor's office for examination.
27. On 26 December 2003 the town prosecutor's office instituted an investigation into the abduction of Ba
> 1 ... 2 3 4 5 ... 27 28 29