khayev, on the basis of the video footage of the bodies before their re-burial. The Government argued that the fact of his death had not been established.
137. The Court notes that no conclusive identification of the bodies found near the village of Goy-Chu was carried out. Accordingly, it cannot establish that one of the bodies was Kazbek Vakhayev. At the same time, it observes that he disappeared after having been placed in State custody. There has been no reliable news of him since 14 August 2000. His name has not been found in any official records of detention facilities after that date. Lastly, the Government did not submit any explanation as to what had happened to him during his detention.
138. Having regard to the previous cases concerning disappearances of people in Chechnya which have come before the Court (see, for example, Imakayeva, cited above, and Luluyev and Others v. Russia, No. 69480/01, ECHR 2006-...), the Court considers that, in the context of the conflict in the Chechen Republic, when a person is placed in detention without any subsequent acknowledgement of the detention, this can be regarded as life-threatening. The absence of Kazbek Vakhayev or any news of him for over nine years corroborates this assumption. Furthermore, the Government have failed to provide any explanation of Kazbek Vakhayev's disappearance and the official investigation in this respect, dragging on for nine years, has produced no tangible results.
139. The Court also notes that on 12 April 2001 the Urus-Martan civil register issued the applicants with a death certificate in respect of Kazbek Vakhayev, giving 24 March 2001 as the date of death. However, since it is unclear on which basis the civil register determined the date of death (see paragraph 41 above), the Court is reluctant to accept it as conclusive and confines itself to the finding that Kazbek Vakhayev must be presumed dead.
140. Having regard to the foregoing, the Court finds it established that Kazbek Vakhayev disappeared after 14 August 2000 while he remained in State custody and that he must be presumed dead following his unacknowledged detention.
(c) The State's compliance with Article 2
141. Article 2, which safeguards the right to life and sets out the circumstances in which deprivation of life may be justified, ranks as one of the most fundamental provisions in the Convention, to 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 - 147, Series A No. 324, and {Avsar} v. Turkey, No. 25657/94, § 391, ECHR 2001-VII (extracts)).
142. The Court has already found it established that the applicants' family member must be presumed dead following his placement in State custody. Noting that the authorities do not rely on any ground of justification in respect of the use of lethal force by their agents, or otherwise accounting for his death, it follows that liability for his presumed death is attributable to the respondent Government.
143. Accordingly, the Court finds that there has been a violation of Article 2 in respect of Kazbek Vakhayev.
B. The alleged inadequacy of the investigation
into the abduction
1. Arguments of the parties
144. The applicants argued that the investigation had not met the requirements to be effective and adequate, as required by the Court's case-law on Article 2. They noted that the investigation was opened belatedly. In particular, the investigation into the discovery of the four unidentified bodies near the village of Goy-Chu had not been opened until
> 1 2 3 ... 12 13 14 ... 21 22 23
Zaki.ru законы и право
поиск по сайту
каталог документов
добавить сайт Zaki.ru в избранное
Правовые акты международные
Правовые акты Российской Федерации
