y surveying the adjacent premises and all moving objects, including vehicles and persons, and to provide fire support to the adjacent checkpoints in case of need (see paragraph 62 above). Besides the checkpoint of the district military commander's office there were at least two further checkpoints of the Russian military forces in the vicinity of the applicants' house, one of them being located about 500 metres away and the other - at about 1.5 km away (ibid.). Having regard to the above-mentioned considerations and, in particular, to the permanent presence of servicemen on the roof of the applicants' house and the aims of their presence there, the Court is led to conclude that the authorities exercised exclusive control over the area and the premises from which Mayrudin Khantiyev had been abducted.
100. It is further observed that, according to the statement by Mr Z., as summarised by the Government, at the relevant time the area was under curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. However, the Government did not furnish either Mr Z.'s statement or any other documents in that respect. At the same time the Court cannot overlook that in their complaints to the domestic authorities and written statements the applicants, as well as some of the witnesses to whom they referred, consistently submitted that Mayrudin Khantiyev had been abducted during the curfew (see paragraphs 9, 18 and 22 above). Be that as it may, and even assuming that the abductors were not State agents, as suggested by the Government, and that they had started forcing the third applicant's entrance door at about 6.15 a.m. at the latest, it would mean that their group consisting of several armed men in camouflage uniforms moving in a vehicle without registration plates must have been able to arrive at the applicants' house despite the curfew, past the checkpoints located in the area and notwithstanding the presence on the roof of the applicants' house of soldiers from the military commander's office stationed there with the specific aim of observing the adjacent premises - a fact which the Court finds hard to accept in the absence of any convincing explanation on the part of the Government.
101. The Court also notes that there are numerous contradictions which cast serious doubts on the veracity of the Government's submission that the soldiers on the roof of the applicants' house had not seen the Niva vehicle arrive at the house and the armed men put Mayrudin Khantiyev into it and leave. First, whilst Mr Ut. claimed that at about 6 a.m. he had been on the roof and had seen a group of persons shouting something, Mr P. submitted that at 6 a.m. he had gone to the shelter to wake Mr Ut. up, that both of them had been absent for about ten minutes and had not heard the sound of the arriving vehicle (see paragraphs 64 and 65 above).
102. Furthermore, although Mr Ut. stated that at about 6 a.m. he had seen a group of persons shouting something in the courtyard, he claimed that he had not heard any cries for help (ibid.). More importantly, in the Government's own submission, when being questioned by the investigators, Mr Z. explicitly stated that servicemen from the roof unit had told him they had seen the white Niva vehicle on 4 December 2000 (see paragraph 61 above). In this connection the Court finds it particularly striking that the investigating authorities had not taken any steps to identify the servicemen referred to by Mr Z., notwithstanding Mr K.'s statement that the names of the servicemen on duty on 4 December 2000 could have been easily obtained from the relevant duty log and Mr P.'s submission that servicemen from the second watch post would have noticed the Niva vehicle (see paragraphs 62 and 65 above). In any event, the Government's submission that the servicemen had not heard or seen anything is hardly reconcilable with the fact that numerous neighbours had been woken up
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