hould be presumed dead following his unacknowledged abduction and detention by State agents on 14 January 2004.
96. In the absence of any plausible explanation on the part of the Government as to the circumstances of Bekman Asadulayev's death, the Court further finds that the Government have not accounted for the death of the applicants' relative and the respondent State's responsibility for this death is therefore engaged.
97. Accordingly, there has been a violation of Article 2 of the Convention in this connection.
(b) The alleged inadequacy of the investigation into the abduction
98. 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 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).
99. The Court notes at the outset that the documents from the investigation were not disclosed by the Government. The Court therefore has to assess the effectiveness of the investigation on the basis of the few documents submitted by the applicant and the information on its progress presented by the Government.
100. Turning to the circumstances of the case, the Court observes that, according to the Government's information, Mr S. informed the MVD authorities about the abduction of Bekman Asadulayev on 14 January 2004, that is, on the day when the latter disappeared. However, it does not appear that any steps were taken by the authorities until 17 January 2004, when the third applicant filed with the district prosecutor's office a formal complaint about the abduction of her brother. It further transpires that although on 17 and 23 January 2004 Mr Sh. and Mr S., respectively, were questioned in the course of an internal inquiry, it was only eighteen days later that the district prosecutor's office decided to institute a criminal investigation into the abduction of Bekman Asadulayev. In the Court's opinion, this important delay, for which no explanation was provided, was in itself liable to affect the investigation of a crime such as abduction in life-threatening circumstances, where crucial action must be taken expeditiously.
101. The Court further observes that, according to the Government, upon the institution of the investigation the authorities questioned a number of witnesses, granted the third applicant victim status and sent several requests for information to various authorities. The Court finds however that they failed to take a number of essential steps. Most notably, there is no indication that the investigators tried to identify and question the servicemen and the security guards on duty at any of the checkpoints on 14 January 2004. Neither does it transpire that they checked the v
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