tary vehicles late at night, which indicated that they had been able to circulate freely past curfew. The men acted like a well-organised group, in a manner similar to that of special forces carrying out identity checks. They were wearing a specific camouflage uniform and were armed. Since Ruslan Magomadov had been missing for a very lengthy period, he could be presumed dead. That presumption was further supported by the circumstances in which he had been arrested, which should be recognised as life-threatening.
83. The Government submitted that unidentified armed men had kidnapped Ruslan Magomadov. They further contended that an investigation of the incident was pending, that there was no evidence that the men were State agents and that there were therefore no grounds for holding the State liable for the alleged violations of the applicants' rights. They further argued that there was no convincing evidence that the applicants' relative was dead and that he had not been officially declared a deceased person. The Government asserted that the crime could have been attributable to illegal armed groups and that a considerable number of armaments and APCs had been stolen from Russian arsenals by insurgents in the 1990s and that members of illegal armed groups could have possessed camouflage uniforms and service identification documents. The Government also pointed out that Ruslan Magomadov had worked as a police officer, and if the authorities were to arrest him they would have used other means than abduction in an APC. The Government also raised a number of objections to the applicants' presentation of the facts. The fact that the perpetrators of the abduction spoke unaccented Russian and were wearing camouflage uniforms did not mean that these men could not have been members of illegal armed groups or criminals pursuing a blood feud. The Government further alleged that the applicants' description of the circumstances surrounding the abduction was inconsistent. In particular, the applicants alleged that the abductors had arrived in APCs, whereas two of their neighbours had mentioned that Ural vehicles had been involved in the events; the applicants' neighbours had not mentioned to the investigators that their yards had been used by the abductors to get into the applicants' household; the applicant had not informed the investigators about the permission to pass through the checkpoints on the night of 9 February 2003 allegedly given by the military commander to representatives of law-enforcement agencies.
B. The Court's evaluation of the facts
84. The Court observes that in its extensive jurisprudence it has developed a number of general principles relating to the establishment of facts in dispute, in particular when faced with allegations of disappearance under Article 2 of the Convention (for a summary of these, see Bazorkina v. Russia, No. 69481/01, §§ 103 - 109, 27 July 2006). The Court also notes that the conduct of the parties when evidence is being obtained has to be taken into account (see Ireland v. the United Kingdom, § 161, Series A No. 25).
85. The Court notes that despite its requests for a copy of the investigation file into the abduction of Ruslan Magomadov, the Government produced only a few documents from the case file. The Government referred to Article 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Court observes that in previous cases it has already found this explanation insufficient to justify the withholding of key information requested by the Court (see Imakayeva v. Russia, No. 7615/02, § 123, ECHR 2006-... (extracts)).
86. In view of this, and bearing in mind the principles referred to above, the Court finds that it can draw inferences from the Government's conduct in respect of the well-foundedness of the applicants' allegations. The Court will thus proceed to examine crucial elements in the pres
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