ations to the applicants of the suspension and reopening of the proceedings and one witness statement mentioned above. Relying on the information obtained from the Prosecutor General's Office, the Government stated that the investigation was in progress and that disclosure of the documents would be in breach of Article 161 of the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure, since the file contained information of a military nature and personal data concerning the witnesses or other participants in the criminal proceedings.
D. Proceedings against law-enforcement officials
76. On 6 April 2006 the first and ninth applicants applied to the Urus-Martan Town Court ("the town court"). They complained that the district prosecutor's office had failed to effectively investigate the disappearances and requested to be granted access to the case file.
77. On 4 May 2005 the town court partially allowed the complaint based on the district prosecutor's office's failure to take effective steps and to investigate the abduction. The court ordered the district prosecutor's office to resume the investigation and to carry out a number of investigative actions as requested by the applicants, such as questioning the residents of Martan-Chu and the servicemen of the military roadblock situated on the road towards Urus-Martan who had been on duty on the night of 16 - 17 December 2002. The court refused to grant the applicants access to the case file, stating that that right was accorded to victims only on completion of the investigation, and not when the proceedings were adjourned. On 7 July 2005 the Chechnya Supreme Court upheld this decision.
II. Relevant domestic law
78. For a summary of relevant domestic law see Akhmadova and Sadulayeva v. Russia, No. 40464/02, § 67 - 69, 10 May 2007.
THE LAW
I. The government's preliminary objection
A. Arguments of the parties
79. The Government contended that the complaint should be declared inadmissible for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies. They submitted that the investigation of the disappearance of Leoma Meshayev and Bislan Saydayev had not yet been completed. They further argued that it had been open to the applicants to challenge in court any actions or omissions of the investigating or other law-enforcement authorities, but that the applicants had not systematically availed themselves of any such remedy. The applicants were furthermore entitled to sue the investigation bodies in civil proceedings for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage.
80. The applicants contested that objection. With reference to the Court's practice, they argued that they had not been obliged to apply to civil courts in order to exhaust domestic remedies. They stated that the criminal investigation had proved to be ineffective and that their complaints to that effect, including the application to the court, had been futile.
B. The Court's assessment
81. In the present case, the Court took no decision about the exhaustion of domestic remedies at the admissibility stage, having found that this question was too closely linked to the merits. It will now proceed to examine the arguments of the parties in the light of the provisions of the Convention and its relevant practice (for a relevant summary, see Estamirov and Others v. Russia, No. 60272/00, § 73 - 74, 12 October 2006).
82. The Court notes that the Russian legal system provides, in principle, two avenues of recourse for the victims of illegal and criminal acts attributable to the State or its agents, namely civil and criminal remedies.
83. As regards a civil action to obtain redress for damage sustained through the alleged illegal acts or unlawful conduct of State agents, the Court has already found in a nu
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