e fact that the armed men wearing camouflage uniforms carried out an identity check supports the applicants' allegation that those were State servicemen.
91. Furthermore, the Ministry of the Interior of Ingushetia unequivocally stated in its letter of 17 April 2004 that it had been established in the course of the investigation that military unit No. 194 KTG was responsible for the attack on the Zabiyevs' lorry. The Court is not persuaded by the Government's assertion that the letter in question merely referred to a hypothesis, because it is clear from the wording of the letter that in the course of the investigation the involvement of certain servicemen in the crime had been established, not merely looked into (see paragraph 24 above).
92. Moreover, a number of items bearing the Russian Ministry of Defence's logo were found in the vicinity of the site of the attack on the lorry and Umar Zabiyev's grave (see paragraph 31 above). The Court takes note of the Government's assertions that those items could have been stolen from Russian military bases by insurgents or left by federal servicemen prior to 10 June 2003. Nonetheless, it would appear a simpler, and more probable explanation that the items in question were left by the armed men seen by Mr D. and Mr O. in the evening of 10 June 2003. The Government's mere allegation that the fingerprints discovered on the items did not correspond to those of S.P. does not in itself suffice to rule out the possibility of military involvement in the events.
93. The Court also takes note of the Government's argument that the number of berths found in the forest did not correspond to the number of armed men who had checked the identity papers of Mr D. and Mr O., but it is not convinced that this argument refutes the applicants' allegations.
94. Given that Mr D. and Mr O. encountered the armed men who checked their identity papers only three hours after the ZIL-130 lorry had been attacked, the Court is satisfied that those who fired at the vehicle belonged to the Russian military.
95. The Court further points out that there were no witnesses who could say what had happened to Umar Zabiyev after his brother Ali had run to the village for help at about 7 p.m. on 10 June 2003. At the same time it follows from the post-mortem report that Umar Zabiyev's death occurred between 5.20 p.m. and 11.20 p.m. on that day (see paragraph 19 above). Accordingly, Umar Zabiyev died of gunshot wounds between 7 p.m. and 11.20 p.m. on 10 June 2003. Moreover, according to ballistic expert examinations, the bullet extracted from Umar Zabiyev's body and bullets that left holes on the ZIL-130 lorry were fired from weapons of the same calibre (see paragraphs 33 and 34 above).
96. The Court doubts that more than one group of armed men in camouflage uniforms could have been present at the same time in the same area and thus considers that the applicants have made a prima facie case that Umar Zabiyev was killed by the same persons who had attacked the ZIL-130 lorry.
97. The Court observes that where the applicants make out a prima facie case and the Court is prevented from reaching factual conclusions owing to a lack of documents, it is for the Government to show conclusively why the documents in question cannot serve to corroborate the allegations made by the applicants, or to provide a satisfactory and convincing explanation of how the events in question occurred. The burden of proof is thus shifted to the Government and if they fail in their arguments, issues will arise under Article 2 and/or Article 3 (see {Togcu} v. Turkey, No. 27601/95, § 95, 31 May 2005, and Akkum and Others v. Turkey, No. 21894/93, § 211, ECHR 2005-II).
98. The Court points out in this connection that the Government's assertion that the investigation did not find any evidence pointing to the involvement of the
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