utiny, taking into consideration not only the actions of State agents but also all the surrounding circumstances (see McCann and Others v. the United Kingdom, 27 September 1995, §§ 146 - 47, Series A No. 324, and {Avsar} v. Turkey, No. 25657/94, § 391, ECHR 2001-VII (extracts)).
115. The Court has already found it established that Saydi Malsagov must be dead following his unacknowledged detention by State servicemen. Noting that the authorities do not rely on any ground of justification in respect of the use of lethal force by their agents, or otherwise accounting for his death, it follows that liability for his death is attributable to the respondent Government.
116. Accordingly, the Court finds that there has been a violation of Article 2 of the Convention in respect of Saydi Malsagov.
B. The alleged inadequacy of the investigation
into the abduction
1. Arguments of the parties
117. The applicants claimed that the authorities had failed in their obligation to carry out an effective investigation into the circumstances of Saydi Malsagov's disappearance. They argued that the investigation had fallen short of the requirements of domestic law and the Convention standards. In particular, it had been pending for six years without any tangible results, having been repeatedly suspended and resumed. The main investigative steps had been taken after the communication of the present application to the Government, which, according to the applicants, once again proved the overall ineffectiveness of the investigation. The first applicant had not been granted victim status until two months after the opening of the investigation; she had not been promptly informed of all developments in the case.
118. The Government claimed that the investigation into the disappearance of the applicants' relative met the Convention requirement of effectiveness. The investigators had taken numerous steps to find Saydi Malsagov, but in vain. In sum, the investigation into the kidnapping was time-consuming but effective.
2. The Court's assessment
119. The Court reiterates that the obligation to protect the right to life under Article 2 of the Convention, read in conjunction with the State's general duty under Article 1 of the Convention to "secure to everyone within [its] jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in [the] Convention", also requires by implication that there should be some form of effective official investigation when individuals have been killed as a result of the use of force (see, mutatis mutandis, McCann and Others, cited above, § 161, and Kaya v. Turkey, 19 February 1998, § 86, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-I). The essential purpose of such investigation is to secure the effective implementation of the domestic laws which protect the right to life and, in those cases involving State agents or bodies, to ensure their accountability for deaths occurring under their responsibility. This investigation should be independent, accessible to the victim's family, carried out with reasonable promptness and expedition, effective in the sense that it is capable of leading to a determination of whether the force used in such cases was or was not justified in the circumstances or otherwise unlawful, and afford a sufficient element of public scrutiny of the investigation or its results (see Hugh Jordan v. the United Kingdom, No. 24746/94, §§ 105 - 09, ECHR 2001-III (extracts), and Douglas-Williams v. the United Kingdom (dec.), No. 56413/00, 8 January 2002).
120. The Court notes at the outset that the majority of the documents from the investigation were not disclosed by the Government. It therefore has to assess the effectiveness of the investigation on the basis of the few documents submitted by the parties and the sparse information on its progress presented by t
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