shir Mutsolgov under Article 126 § 2 of the Criminal Code (aggravated kidnapping). The case file was given number 23520016 (in the submitted documents the number is also referred to as 2352016).
28. By a letter of 26 December 2003 the town prosecutor's office informed the third applicant that a criminal investigation into the abduction of Bashir Mutsolgov had been opened. The decision stated, in particular, that at about 4.20 p.m. on 18 December 2003 unidentified persons in camouflage uniforms, who had arrived in a Niva vehicle and a VAZ-2106 vehicle, had forced Bashir Mutsolgov into one of the vehicles near 83 Oskanova Street and had taken him to an unknown destination. By a letter of the same date addressed to the third applicant the latter, as well as "other relatives" of Bashir Mutsolgov, were requested to come to the town prosecutor's office for an interview and eventual recognition as victims in that criminal case.
29. On 26 December 2003 the second applicant complained to the military prosecutor's office of military unit No. 04062 that his son had been abducted by armed men in camouflage uniforms in several vehicles. He pointed out that when the abductors had been stopped at the GAI station, one of them had produced a special permit which had allowed the cars to pass without being checked. The second applicant also stated that he had managed to find out that Bashir Mutsolgov had been abducted by officers of the Ingushetia department of the FSB, the Chechnya department of the FSB and the Regional Department of the FSB in the North Caucasus; that he had been taken to the headquarters of the Ingushetia department of the FSB in Magas and put into a basement; that on the following day his son had been taken to the settlement of Khankala in the Chechen Republic, where he had been and was still detained. According to the second applicant that information had been provided by officers of the above-mentioned departments of the FSB who had asked that their names not be disclosed; they had also told the second applicant that Bashir Mutsolgov had been subjected to beatings and torture and pressurised to confess to an unspecified crime. The second applicant emphasised that both he and the first applicant were suffering because they knew nothing about their son's fate and had no information about what was being done about it by the investigating authorities.
30. On 30 December 2003 the third applicant was granted victim status in criminal case No. 23520016.
31. On 22 January 2004 the Ingushetia department of the FSB informed the military prosecutor's office of military unit No. 04062 that they had not arrested Bashir Mutsolgov and had no information concerning his whereabouts.
32. On 22 January 2004 the investigators in criminal case No. 23520016 issued a statement concerning the progress of the investigation. The document provided, inter alia, a detailed description of the circumstances of Bashir Mutsolgov's abduction and stated that he had not committed any crimes and that his name had not been on the authorities' wanted list. According to the document, the investigation had questioned a number of witnesses to the abduction, including officer Ch. and M.B. The document, in so far as relevant, continues as follows:
"...
In his explanation of 20 December 2003 officer Ch. of the GOVD submitted that on 18 December 2003, while he was on duty at the Kursk-I GAI station,... between 4 and 5 p.m., he was approached by an acquaintance M.B. who had told him that... he was being followed by a green VAZ-2106 vehicle and a white Niva vehicle; he saw a man being forced into one of those vehicles - those vehicles had been closely following M.B.
Ch. ordered the two vehicles to stop. The Niva vehicle was in front and was followed by a VAZ-2106 vehicle; neither of them had registration plates. The driver of the Niva vehicle had got out an
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