s who had abducted the applicants' eight relatives and that the investigation had not obtained any evidence to the effect that representatives of the federal armed forces or law-enforcement agencies had been involved in the imputed offence. They submitted that the applicants' relatives could have been abducted and killed by members of illegal armed groups, since some of them, for example Apti Murtazov, had cooperated with authorities during the armed conflict in Chechnya in 1996. The Government argued therefore that there were no grounds to claim that the right to life of the applicants' eight relatives secured by Article 2 of the Convention had been breached by the State.
(b) The Court's assessment
80. The Court reiterates that, in the light of the importance of the protection afforded by Article 2, it must subject deprivations of life to the most careful scrutiny, taking into consideration not only the actions of State agents but also all the surrounding circumstances. It has held on many occasions that, where an individual is taken into police custody in good health and is found to be injured on release, it is incumbent on the State to provide a plausible explanation of how those injuries were caused. The obligation on the authorities to account for the treatment of an individual within their control is particularly stringent where that individual dies or disappears thereafter (see, among other authorities, Orhan v. Turkey, No. 25656/94, § 326, 18 June 2002, and the authorities cited therein). Where the events in issue lie wholly, or in large part, within the exclusive knowledge of the authorities, as in the case of persons within 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 {Сakici} v. Turkey [GC], No. 23657/94, § 85, ECHR 1999-IV).
81. In the present case, the Court observes that the Government conceded that the applicants' eight relatives had been abducted from their homes during the night of 27 March 2004 by men in camouflage uniforms armed with automatic firearms and equipped with armoured personnel carriers, but denied that those had been State agents. In this connection, the Court cannot but accept the applicants' argument that heavy military vehicles such as armoured personnel carriers were presumably in the exclusive possession of the State. It further notes the applicants' argument that during the period under examination the village of Duba-Yurt had been under the firm control of the federal forces, that check-points had been established at all roads leading to and from the village, and that the perpetrators must have passed through those check-points, none of these facts having been disputed by the Government. In a situation where a group of armed men was able to move freely in heavy military vehicles during night hours in a village secured by federal check-points and to apprehend village residents at their homes, the Court cannot but reach the conclusion that those were State agents. The Court therefore finds it established beyond reasonable doubt that the applicants' relatives were apprehended and taken away on 27 March 2004 by State agents.
82. The parties further agreed that nine dead bodies were found in the Shali District on 9 April 2004. Eight of the bodies were identified as those of the applicants' relatives. The identity of the deceased and the violent nature of their deaths were acknowledged by the domestic authorities, who had instituted criminal proceedings into the murder, and were never disputed by the Government. The Court also notes the finding of the reports on the examination of the corpses to the effect that the deaths had occurred
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