Prior to 2000 Abubakar and Salman Bantayev participated in illegal armed groups. In 2000 they quitted paramilitary activities and voluntarily handed their arms over to the Chechnya Department of the Federal Security Service (the Chechnya FSB). On 21 January 2000 Abubakar and Salman Bantayev were provided with individual statements to this effect by the Department of the Federal Security Service of Gudermes District (the Gudermes FSB) together with the military commander of the security zone of Gudermes District (комендант зоны безопасности).
10. At the material time Russian federal forces checkpoints were located on roads leading to and from the village of Komsomolskoye.
A. Disappearance of Abubakar Bantayev and Salman Bantayev
1. The applicants' account
I. Events prior to 2 January 2003
11. According to the first applicant, about five months prior to 2 January 2003, that is, in the summer of 2002, she, her son Salman Bantayev and their neighbour were in a KAMAZ lorry driving from their village to the village of Engel-Yurt in the Gudermes district of Chechnya. On the road between Kadi-Yurt and Engel-Yurt their lorry was stopped by Russian military servicemen in an APC (armoured personnel carrier). They checked the identity papers of Salman Bantayev and his neighbour. The servicemen had a list against which they checked Salman Bantayev's name. After that they told the first applicant that they would take her son away with them. They put Salman Bantayev into the APC and took him to a military unit stationed near Gudermes. The applicant's other son, Abubakar Bantayev, went to the military unit on the same day to find out the reasons for his brother's detention. Later in the evening of the same day Salman Bantayev was released.
II. Events of 2 January 2003
i. Abduction of Abubakar Bantayev
12. On the night of 1 - 2 January 2003 Abubakar Bantayev and his children were sleeping in one part of the house at 1 Zapadnaya Street, in the village of Komsomolskoye. Abubakar Bantayev's brother, Shamil Bantayev, was sleeping in another part of the house. Abubakar Bantayev's wife was not at home that night as she was visiting her relatives in another village.
13. Between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. a group of masked men wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with machine guns broke into the house. The men did not introduce themselves; they spoke Russian without an accent. The fourth applicant thought they were Russian servicemen.
14. The servicemen pointed their guns at the family members and lined them up along the wall. When the fourth applicant started to cry, one of them ordered her in Russian to keep silent.
15. The servicemen searched the house and took the family's TV set, Abubakar Bantayev's identity papers and the documents for his car. After that they took Abubakar Bantayev outside, put him into a UAZ vehicle parked next to the house and drove away to an unknown destination.
16. Immediately after Abubakar Bantayev's apprehension Shamil Bantayev rushed to see their mother in the house of his brother Salman Bantayev. The latter's house was located just a few minutes' walk from Abubakar Bantayev's house. On his way there he met his sister Madina Bantayeva who told him that their brother Salman had also been abducted by armed men.
ii. Abduction of Salman Bantayev
17. On the night of 1 - 2 January 2003 the first applicant, Madina Bantayeva, Salman Bantayev and his children were sleeping in Salman Bantayev's house at 8 Stalskogo Street (also spelled Stalskaya Street), in the village of Komsomolskoye. The house was located about 50 metres from the local military commander's office.
18. Between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on 2 January 2003 a group of around ten men broke into the house. They wore masks and camoufl
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