, §§ 103 - 109, 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, cited above, § 161).
73. The applicants maintained that it was beyond reasonable doubt that the men who had intruded into their home and taken away Mr Magomed Dokuyev had been State agents. The applicants who, except for the second applicant, had been eyewitnesses to the apprehension submitted their account of the events. Furthermore, the first applicant himself had been detained by the same persons but later released and described the circumstances of his detention and release. 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.
74. The Government submitted that on 14 February 2001 unidentified armed men in camouflage and masks accompanied by APCs had taken Mr Magomed Dokuyev and the first applicant from their home to an unknown destination. The first applicant had been released the next day but the whereabouts of Mr Magomed Dokuyev had not been established. They further pointed out that the investigation into the incident had been pending and that there was no evidence that the armed men had been State agents. Accordingly, there were no grounds for holding the State responsible for the events in question. The Government particularly emphasised that information allegedly provided by Kh. could not be relied upon, since he had not been identified and it was not certain whether he even existed. They further argued that there was no convincing evidence that Mr Magomed Dokuyev was dead, given that his whereabouts had not been established and his body had not been found.
75. The Court notes that despite its repeated requests for a copy of the investigation file concerning the abduction of Mr Magomed Dokuyev, 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-...).
76. 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 detention on 14 February 2001. Six applicants were eyewitnesses to the events and the first applicant was himself abducted by those persons but released the next day. The applicants stated that the perpetrators had acted in a manner similar to that of a security operation - they had checked identity documents and used APCs, which could not have been available to paramilitary groups. Furthermore, according to the first applicant, although his captors kept him blindfolded, after he had been taken out the APC he once managed to catch a glimpse of military tents around. He then heard helicopters landing and taking off and his son's voice coming from a nearby tent. 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.
77. The Court finds that the fact that a large group of armed men in uniform, equipped with military vehicles and able to move freely through military roadblocks, proceeded to apprehend two persons at their home in a town area strongly supports the applicants' allegation that these were State servicemen. The Court further notes that after seven years the domestic investigation had produced no tangible results.
78. The Court observes that where the applicant makes out a prima facie case and the Court is
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