age uniforms with no insignia and were armed with machine guns. They spoke both Russian and Chechen. The applicants thought they were Russian military servicemen. A group of ten servicemen waited outside, next to the grey and khaki-coloured UAZ vehicles parked in the yard.
19. The servicemen tied up Madina Bantayeva and the eighth applicant and put them in one of the rooms. Then they searched the house, ripping upholstery, turning furniture upside down and demanding gold and money from Salman Bantayev. From the window of their room Madina Bantayeva saw the intruders taking some items of their family property and putting them in one of the UAZ vehicles. When Madina Bantayeva saw from the window one of the intruders taking a TV set into the UAZ vehicle, she started screaming that their house was being robbed. The serviceman with the TV set heard this and put the TV set back in the house.
20. The servicemen took a number of items of the family's property, including a video camera, as well as Salman Bantayev's identity papers, marriage certificate, documents for his car and the family photograph albums. After that they took Salman Bantayev into the yard. Without letting him put on clothing or shoes, the servicemen put Salman Bantayev in one of the UAZ vehicles and drove away towards Gudermes.
21. The applicants' neighbour Mrs M.M. testified that late at night on 2 January 2003 she had seen military UAZ cars and a grey UAZ car ("таблетка") pulling over by Salman Bantayev's house. About twenty armed men in camouflage uniforms and masks went into the yard. Mrs M.M. thought these men belonged to the Russian military. Having spent about half an hour in the applicants' house, the servicemen left. Then Mrs M.M. saw the first applicant and her daughter stepping outside the house; the two women told her that the servicemen had taken Abubakar and Salman Bantayev away. Mrs M.M. went into the applicants' house and saw that everything there had been turned upside down.
iii. The first applicant's visits to State agencies
22. Shortly after Salman Bantayev's abduction and the meeting with his sister Madina on the way, Shamil Bantayev came over to his mother's house and told her that Russian servicemen had also taken Abubakar Bantayev away.
23. The first applicant and Shamil Bantayev immediately went to the Gudermes District military commander's office (the district military commander's office) and requested information about their relatives from a duty officer who refused to identify himself. The officer replied that he knew nothing about the Bantayev brothers and that he would not bother his superiors in the middle of the night.
24. In the morning of 2 January 2003 the first applicant reported her sons' disappearance to the Gudermes District department of the interior (the Gudermes ROVD). Later on the same day the police visited the houses of the Bantayev brothers and collected witness statements.
25. The applicants have had no news of Abubakar and Salman Bantayev since 2 January 2003.
26. In support of their statements, the applicants submitted the following documents: witness statement of the first applicant, provided on 27 February 2005; witness statement of the fourth applicant, provided on 2 March 2005; witness statement of the eighth applicant, provided on 2 March 2005; witness statement of the first applicant's daughter Mrs Madina Bantayeva, provided on 7 November 2003; witness statement of the first applicant's neighbour Mrs M.M., provided on 23 March 2004; witness statement of the applicants' relative Mrs A.R., provided on 27 March 2003; hand-drawn map of the first applicant's house; copies of statements No. 002 and No. 606 issued by the Gudermes FSB and the military commander of the Gudermes district security zone in respect of Abubakar Bantayev and Salman Bantayev acc
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