and if they fail in their arguments, issues will arise under Article 2 and/or Article 3 (see {Togcu} v. Turkey, No. 27601/95, § 95, 31 May 2005, and Akkum and Others v. Turkey, No. 21894/93, § 211, ECHR 2005-II).
67. Taking into account the above elements, the Court is satisfied that the applicant has made a prima facie case that his son was detained by State agents. The Court also notes in this connection that the Government, on their part, cited statements of several witnesses, including Mr Sh. who had been detained together with the applicant's son, to the effect that on the date in question Adam Ayubov and two other men had been taken away by a group of servicemen who had arrived in a Ural military truck. The Government's subsequent statement that the investigation did not find any evidence to support the involvement of federal servicemen or special forces in the abduction is insufficient to discharge them from the above-mentioned burden of proof.
68. In the light of the foregoing and drawing inferences from the Government's failure to submit the documents from the criminal investigation file which were in their exclusive possession or to provide another plausible explanation of the events in question, the Court finds it established that Adam Ayubov was detained on 19 January 2000 by State agents.
69. The Court further notes that there has been no reliable news of the applicant's son since that date. His name has not been found in the official records of any detention facilities. The domestic investigation into Adam Ayubov's disappearance, dragging on for almost eight years, has not made any meaningful findings regarding his fate. Lastly, the Government did not submit any explanation as to what had happened to him after he had been apprehended.
70. Having regard to the previous cases concerning disappearances of people in Chechnya which have come before the Court (see, for example, Imakayeva, cited above, and Luluyev and Others v. Russia, No. 69480/01, ECHR 2006-... (extracts)), the Court considers that, in the context of the conflict in the Chechen Republic, when a person is detained by unidentified servicemen without any subsequent acknowledgement of the detention, this can be regarded as life-threatening. The absence of Adam Ayubov or any news of him for over seven years corroborates this assumption. In the light of these considerations and having regard to the particular circumstances of the case, and more specifically the considerable lapse of time since the day on which Adam Ayubov went missing, the Court finds that he must be presumed dead following unacknowledged detention by State agents.
71. In the absence of any plausible explanation on the part of the Government as to the circumstances of Adam Ayubov's death, the Court further finds that the Government have not accounted for the death of the applicant's son during his detention and that the respondent State's responsibility for this death is therefore engaged.
72. Accordingly, there has been a violation of Article 2 of the Convention in this connection.
B. Alleged inadequacy of the investigation
1. Submissions by the parties
73. The applicant's wife further argued that the investigation in the present case had fallen short of the requirements of domestic law and the Convention standards. She pointed out that the investigation had not been commenced before 14 November 2000, ten months after her son's arrest and disappearance. It was then discontinued and was not reopened until the present application was communicated to the respondent Government. According to the applicant's wife, the investigating authorities had failed to take essential steps, and namely to inspect the scene of the incident and to take photographs of the burnt property, to obtain expert opinions, to question witnesses
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