Saydi Malsagov away were State agents, since they had spoken unaccented Russian and had been able to move freely about Urus-Martan at night during the curfew hours. The applicants who had been eyewitnesses to the abduction submitted their account of the events. The applicants invited the Court to draw inferences as to the well-foundedness of their allegations from the Government's failure to provide the documents requested from them.
102. The Government submitted that on 7 November 2002 unidentified armed men in camouflage uniforms and armed with machine guns had taken Saydi Malsagov to an unknown destination. His whereabouts had not been established.
103. The Government emphasised that none of the eyewitnesses to Saydi Malsagov's abduction could identify the perpetrators, as the latter had worn masks. Ms Sh.'s deposition submitted by the applicants could not be considered valid evidence as it had not been obtained in accordance with the procedure prescribed by Russian laws; moreover, first she had said that she had seen ten armed men and later had claimed to have seen some fifteen or twenty men. The Government also suggested that Saydi Malsagov, a former insurgent, could have staged his kidnapping in order to return to an illegal armed group. Camouflage uniforms and machine guns could have been illegally purchased by insurgents; they could also have forged identity documents of the military or other State agencies to move freely through checkpoints.
104. The Court notes that despite its repeated requests for a copy of the entire investigation file concerning the abduction of Saydi Malsagov, the Government have failed to produce it. They 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-...).
105. In view of the foregoing and bearing in mind the principles cited above, the Court finds that it can draw inferences from the Government's conduct in this respect. It considers that the applicants have presented a coherent and convincing picture of their relative's arrest on 7 November 2002. The applicants stated that the perpetrators had acted in a manner similar to that of a security operation - they had checked identity papers and searched the house. Moreover, the men had been armed with machine guns and sniper rifles used by the Russian military. In their applications to the authorities the applicants consistently maintained that their relative had been detained by unknown servicemen and requested the investigation to look into that possibility.
106. The applicants' neighbour, Ms Sh., also confirmed the applicants' account of the events as she had seen a group of armed men in camouflage uniforms walking down the street on the night of Saydi Malsagov's abduction. The Court notes that it is not obliged to reject Ms Sh.'s deposition as invalid evidence as suggested by the Government merely for failure to comply with Russian domestic procedural laws. Nor does it consider the fact that the witness did not accurately calculate the number of the walking men she had spotted late at night as proof of her untrustworthiness.
107. The Court takes note of the Government's assertion that prior to his disappearance the applicants' relative had participated in illegal armed groups. However, it is not persuaded that Saydi Malsagov had staged his kidnapping by inviting a large number of insurgents at night to his home where they would have run risks of being arrested by the federal forces only to conceal his departure for a rebel fighters' camp. On the contrary, the Court considers that Saydi Malsagov's history of involvement in illegal armed groups makes the applicants' hypothesis of his unacknow
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