investigation received the required level of public scrutiny, or to safeguard the interests of the next of kin in the proceedings.
94. Finally, the Court notes that the investigation was adjourned and resumed a number of times and that there were long periods of inactivity during the years when it was pending.
95. The Government raised the possibility for the applicants to make use of the judicial review of the decisions of the investigating authorities in the context of exhaustion of domestic remedies. The Court observes that the applicants, having no access to the case file and not being properly informed of the progress of the investigation, could not have effectively challenged actions or omissions of investigating authorities before a court. Furthermore, the investigation has been resumed by the prosecuting authorities themselves a number of times due to the need to take additional investigative steps. However, they still failed to investigate the applicants' allegations properly. Moreover, owing to the time that had elapsed since the events complained of, certain investigative measures that ought to have been carried out much earlier could no longer usefully be taken. Accordingly, the Court finds that the remedy relied on by the Government was ineffective in the circumstances and dismisses their preliminary objection as regards the applicant's failure to exhaust domestic remedies within the context of the criminal investigation.
96. In the light of the foregoing, the Court holds that the authorities failed to carry out an effective criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Aslanbek Astamirov, in breach of Article 2 in its procedural aspect.
IV. Alleged violation of Article 3 of the Convention
97. The applicants further relied on Article 3 of the Convention, submitting that as a result of their relative's disappearance and the State's failure to investigate those events properly, they had endured mental suffering in breach of Article 3 of the Convention. Article 3 reads:
"No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
98. The Government disagreed with these allegations and argued that in the absence of any evidence suggesting that the applicants' relative had been abducted by representatives of the State, there were no grounds for alleging a violation of Article 3 of the Convention on account of the applicants' mental suffering.
99. In the present case the Court notes that the applicants are the mother, sisters, wife and children of the individual who has disappeared. They were eyewitnesses to the arrest. For more than six years they have not had any news of him. During this period the applicants have applied to various official bodies with enquiries about their family member, both in writing and in person. Despite their attempts, the applicants have never received any plausible explanation or information as to what became of him following his detention. The responses received by the applicants mostly denied that the State was responsible for his arrest or simply informed them that an investigation was ongoing. The Court's findings under the procedural aspect of Article 2 are also of direct relevance here. In line with the Court's established practice, these elements give the suffering of the applicants a dimension and character distinct from the emotional distress which may be regarded as inevitably caused to relatives of a victim of a serious human rights violation (see Orhan v. Turkey, No. 25656/94, § 358, 18 June 2002, and Imakayeva, cited above, § 164).
100. In view of the above, the Court finds that the applicants suffered, and continue to suffer, distress and anguish as a result of the disappearance of Aslanbek Astamirov and their inability to find out what happened to him. The manner in
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