h the substantive obligation under Article 2
109. The Court reiterates that Article 2, which safeguards the right to life and sets out the circumstances when deprivation of life may be justified, ranks as one of the most fundamental provisions in the Convention, from which no derogation is permitted. In the light of the importance of the protection afforded by Article 2, the Court must subject deprivation of life to the most careful scrutiny, taking into consideration not only the actions of State agents but also all the surrounding circumstances (see, among other authorities, McCann and Others v. the United Kingdom, 27 September 1995, §§ 146 - 47, Series A No. 324, and {Avsar} v. Turkey, No. 25657/94, § 391, ECHR 2001-VII (extracts)).
110. The Court has already found that Mayrudin Khantiyev must be presumed dead following his unacknowledged detention by State servicemen. Noting that the authorities did not rely on any ground capable of justifying the use of lethal force by their agents or otherwise accounting for his death, it follows that the responsibility for his presumed death is attributable to the respondent Government.
111. Accordingly, the Court finds that there has been a violation of Article 2 of the Convention in respect of Mayrudin Khantiyev.
(b) The alleged inadequacy of the investigation into the abduction
112. The Court reiterates that the obligation to protect the right to life under Article 2 of the Convention, read in conjunction with the State's general duty under Article 1 of the Convention to "secure to everyone within [its] jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in [the] Convention", also requires by implication that there should be some form of effective official investigation when individuals have been killed as a result of the use of force (see Kaya v. Turkey, 19 February 1998, § 86, Reports 1998-I). The essential purpose of such an investigation is to secure the effective implementation of the domestic laws which protect the right to life and, in those cases involving State agents or bodies, to ensure their accountability for deaths occurring under their responsibility. This investigation should be independent, accessible to the victim's family, carried out with reasonable promptness and expedition, effective in the sense that it is capable of leading to a determination of whether the force used in such cases was or was not justified in the circumstances or was otherwise unlawful, and afford a sufficient element of public scrutiny of the investigation or its results (see Hugh Jordan v. the United Kingdom, No. 24746/94, §§ 105 - 09, ECHR 2001-III (extracts), and Douglas-Williams v. the United Kingdom (dec.), No. 56413/00, 8 January 2002).
113. The Court observes at the outset that no documents from the investigation file were disclosed by the Government. It therefore has to assess the effectiveness of the investigation on the basis of the few documents submitted by the applicants and the information about its progress submitted by the Government.
114. Turning to the facts of the present case, the Court notes that on 5 December 2000, following the applicants' complaint, representatives of a State body, apparently the ROVD, inspected the crime scene. It appears that the ROVD was subsequently in charge of an inquiry into the circumstances of Mayrudin Khantiyev's abduction and then, between 17 and 27 December 2000, transferred the materials of the inquiry to the town prosecutor's office (see paragraphs 23, 55 and 57 above). From the parties' submissions it transpires that the only investigative step taken by the ROVD was the crime scene inspection which was carried out on 5 December 2000 and there is no indication that between 5 and 17 December 2000 the ROVD or any other authority took any further investigative steps. While the town prosecutor's office received the file on 17 December 2000, it to
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