the applicants' rights. They further argued that there was no convincing evidence that the applicants' relatives were dead. The Government also stated that, according to one of the versions of the events seen by the investigation, the crime could have been committed by members of illegal armed groups.
B. The Court's evaluation of the facts
66. The Court observes that in its extensive jurisprudence it has developed a number of general principles relating to the establishment of facts in dispute, in particular when faced with allegations of disappearance under Article 2 of the Convention (for a summary of these, see Bazorkina v. Russia, No. 69481/01, §§ 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, 18 January 1978, § 161, Series A No. 25).
67. The Court notes that despite its requests for a copy of the investigation file into the abduction of Abubakar Bantayev and Salman Bantayev, the Government did not produce any documents from the case file. The Government 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-... (extracts)).
68. In view of this and bearing in mind the principles referred to above, the Court finds that it can draw inferences from the Government's conduct in respect of the well-foundedness of the applicants' allegations. The Court will thus proceed to examine crucial elements in the present case that should be taken into account when deciding whether the applicants' relatives can be presumed dead and whether their deaths can be attributed to the authorities.
69. The applicants alleged that the persons who had taken Abubakar Bantayev and Salman Bantayev away on 2 January 2003 and then killed were State agents.
70. The Government suggested in their submission that the persons who had detained Abubakar Bantayev and Salman Bantayev could be members of paramilitary groups. However, this allegation was not specific and they did not submit any material to support it. The Court would stress in this regard that the evaluation of the evidence and the establishment of the facts is a matter for the Court, and it is incumbent on it to decide on the evidentiary value of the documents submitted to it (see {Celikbilek} v. Turkey, No. 27693/95, § 71, 31 May 2005).
71. The Court notes that the applicants' allegation is supported by the witness statements collected by the applicants and by the investigation. It finds that the fact that two large groups of armed men in uniform, simultaneously breaking into two different houses located within close proximity to the district military commander's office, at night time, equipped with vehicles, were able to move freely through military roadblocks and apprehended the Bantayev brothers at their homes strongly supports the applicants' allegation that these were State servicemen conducting a security operation. In their application to the authorities the applicants pointed out that Abubakar Bantayev and Salman Bantayev were detained by unknown servicemen and requested the investigation to look into that possibility (see paragraphs 33 above). The domestic investigation also accepted factual assumptions as presented by the applicants and took steps to check whether law-enforcement agencies were involved in the kidnapping, but it does not appear that any serious measures have been taken in that direction.
72. The Court observes that where the applicants make out a prima facie case and the Court is prevented from reaching factual conclusions owing to a lack of documents, it is for the Government to arg
> 1 2 3 ... 8 9 10 ... 19 20 21
Zaki.ru законы и право
поиск по сайту
каталог документов
добавить сайт Zaki.ru в избранное
Правовые акты международные
Правовые акты Российской Федерации
