Постановление Европейского суда по правам человека от 12.02.2009 «Дело Аюбов (Ayubov) против России» [англ.]

actions of State agents but also all the surrounding circumstances. It has held on many occasions that, where an individual is taken into police custody in good health and is found to be injured on release, it is incumbent on the State to provide a plausible explanation of how those injuries were caused. The obligation on the authorities to account for the treatment of an individual within their control is particularly stringent where that individual dies or disappears thereafter (see, among other authorities, Orhan v. Turkey, No. 25656/94, § 326, 18 June 2002, and the authorities cited therein). Where the events in issue lie wholly, or in large part, within the exclusive knowledge of the authorities, as in the case of persons within their control in detention, strong presumptions of fact will arise in respect of injuries and death occurring during that detention. Indeed, the burden of proof may be regarded as resting on the authorities to provide a satisfactory and convincing explanation (see Salman v. Turkey [GC], No. 21986/93, § 100, ECHR 2000-VII, and {Cakici} v. Turkey [GC], No. 23657/94, § 85, ECHR 1999-IV).
63. In the present case, the Court observes that although the Government denied the State's responsibility for the abduction and disappearance of the applicant's son, they acknowledged the specific facts underlying the applicant's version of events. In particular, it is common ground between the parties that Adam Ayubov was taken away from his home by men in camouflage uniforms armed with automatic firearms during the daylight hours on 19 January 2000. It has therefore first to be established whether the armed men belonged to the federal forces.
64. The Court notes at the outset that despite its repeated requests for a copy of the investigation file concerning the abduction of Adam Ayubov, the Government refused to produce it, referring to Article 161 of the Russian 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 it (see, for example, Imakayeva v. Russia, No. 7615/02, § 23, ECHR 2006-... (extracts)). In view of the foregoing and bearing in mind the principles cited above, the Court finds that it can draw inferences from the Government's conduct in this respect.
65. It further considers that the applicant and subsequently his wife presented a coherent and consistent picture of Adam Ayubov's detention on 19 January 2000, the applicant's wife having corroborated this account with two eyewitness statements (see paragraph 14 above). The applicant and his wife stated that the perpetrators had acted in a manner similar to that of a security operation. In particular, they had arrived in a group in a military truck during daylight hours, had checked the identity papers of the residents and had taken away three men. They had also spoken Russian without accent. Moreover, according to eyewitness statements submitted by the applicant's wife, the intruders returned later that day and the next day and destroyed her family's property. In the Court's opinion, the fact that a group of armed men in camouflage uniforms, equipped with a military truck and able to move freely in broad daylight during at least two days in a row and to apprehend several persons at their home in a city area strongly supports the applicant's allegation that they were State agents.
66. The Court observes that where the applicant makes out a prima facie case and the Court is prevented from reaching factual conclusions owing to the lack of such documents, it is for the Government to argue conclusively why the documents in question cannot serve to corroborate the allegations made by the applicant, or to provide a satisfactory and convincing explanation of how the events in question occurred. The burden of proof is thus shifted to the Government



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