surrounding circumstances. Detained persons are in a vulnerable position and the obligation on the authorities to account for the treatment of a detained individual is particularly stringent where that individual dies or disappears thereafter (see Orhan v. Turkey, No. 25656/94, § 326, 18 June 2002). Where the events in question lie wholly or in a large part within the exclusive knowledge of the authorities, as in the case of persons under their control in detention, strong presumptions of fact will arise in respect of injuries and death occurring during that detention. Indeed, the burden of proof may be regarded as resting on the authorities to provide a satisfactory and convincing explanation (see Salman v. Turkey [GC], No. 21986/93, § 100, ECHR 2000-VII, and {Cakici} v. Turkey [GC], No. 23657/94, § 85, ECHR 1999-IV).
96. The Court observes that 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 - 09, 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, 18 January 1978, § 161, Series A No. 25).
97. The Court notes that, despite its requests for a copy of the entire investigation file into the murder of Aslan Dokayev and Rustam Achkhanov and the kidnapping of Amir Magomedov and Ali Uspayev, the Government refused to produce the case materials except for one document, on the grounds that they were precluded from providing them by Article 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Court observes that in previous cases it has 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)).
98. In view of the foregoing and bearing in mind the principles referred to above, the Court finds that it can draw inferences from the Government's conduct in this respect.
99. The applicants alleged that the persons who had taken Amir Magomedov, Ali Uspayev, Aslan Dokayev and Rustam Achkhanov away on 18 July 2001 were State agents.
100. The Court notes at the outset that the Government accepted that a special operation had been carried out by unspecified units of the federal military troops and the Internal Troops of the Ministry of the Interior in the village of Pobedinskoe on 18 July 2001 (see paragraph 14 above). They also confirmed that unnamed State servicemen who had been taking part in the security operation had stopped the VAZ 2106 car near the village of Raduzhnoe and had opened fire when Aslan Dokayev and Rustam Achkhanov started running (see paragraph 15 above). It was also accepted that those servicemen had been travelling in APCs (see paragraph 59 above).
101. The Government nonetheless denied that the servicemen had shot Aslan Dokayev and Rustam Achkhanov and claimed that the two men had escaped and hidden somewhere in Raduzhnoe. They provided no explanation as to what happened to Amir Magomedov and Ali Uspayev since they had gone missing on 18 July 2001.
102. According to the Government, unnamed witnesses to the incident in which Aslan Dokayev and Rustam Achkhanov were shot at had stated before the domestic investigation that the two men had been either wounded or killed and then put into the APCs. The Government further claimed that the witnesses' depositions had been refuted by the unnamed servicemen who had claimed that they had fired into the air, not at Aslan Dokayev and Rustam Achkhanov (see paragraph 58 above). The Court points out that the Government did not produce any transcripts of the interviews of the witnesses in question. Neither did they provide any information on the identities of the servicemen who had
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