minary objection
A. Submission by the parties
49. The Government contended that the application should be declared inadmissible for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies since the investigation into the abduction of the applicant's son and the infliction of damage on his property had not yet been completed. They also contended that by virtue of relevant provisions of the Russian Constitution, the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure, the Russian Civil Code and other legal instruments it had been open to the applicant to make a court complaint to it about the allegedly unlawful detention of his son, or to challenge in court any actions or omissions of the investigating or other law-enforcement authorities. They also submitted that the applicant had been granted the status of a civil claimant in the criminal proceedings, and therefore could have made a court complaint or claim concerning the destruction of his property. The Government insisted that the applicant could have applied directly to the Supreme Court of Russia. However, he had not availed himself of any such remedy. In support of their argument, the Government referred to the letters from the Russian courts which they had submitted to the Court (see paragraph 47 above).
50. The applicant's wife, on his behalf, contested the Government's objection. She first stated that in 2000 it had been impossible to make effective use of any remedy within the territory of the Chechen Republic, as the courts and law-enforcement agencies had not been functioning properly there.
51. The applicant's wife further argued that the fact that the investigation into the circumstances of her son's disappearance was still pending cast doubt upon its effectiveness rather than indicating that the applicant's complaints were premature.
52. She also contended that the Government had failed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the domestic remedies relied on by them. In particular, she pointed out that under relevant provisions of national law the applicant would have only had the standing to challenge before a court the detention of his son if the latter had been a minor, which clearly was not the case, and that in any event in the absence of any information concerning the place of his son's detention, the applicant had been deprived of the opportunity, even theoretically, of applying to a court which would have territorial jurisdiction over such a complaint.
53. The applicant's wife argued that it was impossible to bring any civil claim for compensation until those responsible for the crime had been identified in course of criminal proceedings. She also referred to the cases of Isayeva, Yusupova and Bazayeva v. Russia (Nos. 57947/00, 57948/00 and 57949/00, judgment of 24 February 2005, § 149); {Yasa} v. Turkey (judgment of 2 September 1998, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-VI, § 74); and {Selcuk} and Asker v. Turkey (judgment of 4 April 1998, Reports 1998-II, § 96) and argued that the applicant had not been obliged to pursue any civil remedy as this would only lead to an award of damages and not to the identification and punishment of those responsible, as required by the Court's settled case-law in relation to complaints such as his ones. She contended that in any event by virtue of a relevant provision of the Russian Civil Code, in the absence of any meaningful findings made by the domestic investigation, a court would suspend the consideration of any civil claim pending the outcome of the investigation.
B. The Court's assessment
54. The Court notes that, in its decision of 5 July 2007, it considered that the question of exhaustion of domestic remedies was closely linked to the substance of the present application and that it should be joined to the merits. It will now proceed to assess the parties' arguments in the l
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