rom the above-mentioned burden of proof. Drawing inferences from the Government's failure to submit the documents which were in their exclusive possession or to provide another plausible explanation of the events in question, the Court considers that Lecha Basayev and Lema Dikayev were detained on 6 July 2002 by State servicemen during an unacknowledged security operation.
123. There has been no reliable news of Lecha Basayev or Lema Dikayev since the date of their abduction. Their names have not been found in any official detention facilities' records. Finally, the Government did not submit any explanation as to what had happened to them after their arrest.
124. Having regard to the previous cases concerning disappearances in Chechnya which have come before the Court (see, among others, Bazorkina, cited above; Imakayeva, cited above; Luluyev and Others v. Russia, No. 69480/01, ECHR 2006-... (extracts); Baysayeva v. Russia, No. 74237/01, 5 April 2007; Akhmadova and Sadulayeva, cited above; and Alikhadzhiyeva v. Russia, No. 68007/01, 5 July 2007), in the context of the conflict in the Republic, when a person is detained by unidentified servicemen without any subsequent acknowledgment of the detention, this can be regarded as life-threatening. The absence of Lecha Basayev and Lema Dikayev or of any news of them for several years supports this assumption.
125. The Court further notes that, regrettably, it has been unable to benefit from the results of the domestic investigation owing to the Government's failure to disclose most of the documents from the file (see paragraph 101 above). Nevertheless, it is clear that the investigation did not identify the perpetrators of the kidnapping.
126. Accordingly, the Court finds that the evidence available permits it to establish that Lecha Basayev and Lema Dikayev must be presumed dead following their unacknowledged detention by State servicemen.
V. Alleged violation of Article 2 of the Convention
127. The applicants complained under Article 2 of the Convention that their relatives had disappeared after having been detained by Russian servicemen and that the domestic authorities had failed to carry out an effective investigation of the matter. Article 2 reads:
"1. Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law.
2. Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:
(a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;
(b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained;
(c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection."
A. The parties' submissions
128. The Government contended that the domestic investigation had obtained no evidence to the effect that Lecha Basayev and Lema Dikayev were dead or that any servicemen of the federal law enforcement agencies had been involved in their kidnapping or alleged killing. The Government claimed that the investigation into the abduction of the applicants' relatives met the Convention requirement of effectiveness, as all measures envisaged in national law were being taken to identify the perpetrators.
129. The applicants argued that Lecha Basayev and Lema Dikayev had been detained by State servicemen and should be presumed dead in the absence of any reliable news of them for several years. The applicants also argued that the investigation had not met the requirements of effectiveness and adequacy, as required by the Court's case-law on Article 2. The applicants pointed out t
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