o 17 December 2002 in Martan-Chu. The two men have not been seen since the day of detention, and the families have been conducting a search for them together.
1. Apprehension of Leoma Meshayev
10. The first eight applicants are relatives of Leoma Akhiatovich Meshayev, who was born in 1952. The first applicant is his wife, the second applicant is his brother, the fourth, fifth, sixth and the seventh applicants are his children. The third and eighth applicants are his niece and nephew. Leoma Meshayev worked as a driver and tractor mechanic. The first applicant suffers from a number of chronic diseases and has category 3 disabled status. The fifth applicant, the Meshayevs' minor daughter, is seriously ill and has category 1 disabled status. The applicants submitted that Leoma Meshayev had suffered from tuberculosis. In March 2003 the heads of administration of Martan-Chu and of the Urus-Martan district certified that there was no information to suspect Mr Meshayev of involvement in illegal armed groups or any other criminal activities.
11. The Meshayev family live in their own house at 12 Rechnaya Street. About 3 a.m. on 17 December 2002 a group of five or seven men wearing camouflage uniforms and white camouflage cloaks entered the house. They were all armed and masked and spoke Russian and Chechen.
12. One of the men woke up Leoma Meshayev and told him in Chechen "Leoma, wake up!" They threw him on the floor and handcuffed him. When one of the intruders pointed his automatic rifle at Meshayev's nine-year-old son, another told him in Chechen "Don't touch the children, they are not guilty". Then the armed men escorted Leoma Meshayev out of the room, without permitting him to put on warm clothes. He was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt, trousers and was allowed to put on a pair of boots.
13. The first applicant submitted that she had cried and asked them not to take her husband away and that he hadn't done anything. The armed men had ordered her to keep quiet, or they would use the firearms. They took her husband's passport with them, in which documents for his Ural truck were inserted. When they were leaving the house, one of the men hit the first applicant with a rifle butt on the head, as a result of which she briefly lost consciousness. The first applicant was able to see this person quite closely and submitted that he was short and plump, had large blue eyes visible in the opening of his mask and spoke Russian.
14. When the first applicant came round, she found that the men had closed the entrance door to the house by pushing a wardrobe against it. The first applicant managed to open it, with difficulty, and went out into the courtyard. The servicemen there tried to start her husband's Ural truck, but failed. They then proceeded along Svoboda Street towards the cemetery. The first applicant ran after them, but they started to shoot at her with machine guns with silencers and she had to keep a distance.
15. The first applicant reached the cemetery and there she lost sight of the men. A woman who lived near the cemetery told her on the following day that she had seen military vehicles - an armoured personnel carrier (APC), two Ural trucks and a UAS vehicle - all without registration numbers, parked near her house. She had also seen a group of armed men around these vehicles, who had loaded her neighbour's winter supply of wood into one of the vehicles before they left.
16. Leoma Meshayev's brother, the second applicant, stated that in the early hours of 17 December 2002 he had been awoken by the cries of his sister-in-law, the first applicant, who asked for help and said that his brother had been taken away. The second applicant ran from his house into the nearby main street leading towards Urus-Martan and saw an APC, Ural trucks and a UAZ vehicle passing through the military roadblock tow
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