is thus shifted to the Government 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).
93. The Government seemed to raise doubts as to the credibility of the applicants' statements concerning the factual circumstances of the abduction of Beslan, Rizvan, Rizavdi and Shuddi Dolsayev and the subsequent events (see paragraphs 22 - 25, 73 - 74 above). The Court notes in this connection that the crucial elements underlying the applicants' submissions as to the facts have not been disputed by the Government. The Government did not dispute that the abduction of the applicants' relatives had actually been committed by a group of armed men at the time stated by the applicants. This fact was confirmed by the official investigation conducted by the district prosecutor's office (see paragraphs 21, 25, 71 above), by the internal inquiry carried out by the Zavodskoy ROVD into the disappearance of one of their officers, Beslan Dolsayev (see paragraph 36 above), as well as by the District Court's decision declaring Rizvan, Rizavdi and Shuddi Dolsayev missing persons (see paragraphs 68 - 69 above) and Beslan Dolsayev a deceased person as of the day of their disappearance (see paragraph 70 above). The Court finds that the inconsistencies pointed out by the Government in the applicants' description of events are so insignificant that they cannot cast doubt on the overall credibility of the applicants' submission.
94. Taking into account the above elements, the Court is satisfied that the applicants have made a prima facie case that their relatives were apprehended by State servicemen. The Government's statement that the investigation did not find any evidence to support the involvement of the special forces in the kidnapping is insufficient to discharge them from the above-mentioned burden of proof. Drawing inferences from the Government's failure to submit the documents which were in their exclusive possession or to provide another plausible explanation of the events in question, the Court considers that Beslan, Rizvan, Rizavdi and Shuddi Dolsayev were apprehended on 21 October 2002 by State servicemen during an unacknowledged security operation.
95. There has been no reliable news of Beslan, Rizvan, Rizavdi and Shuddi Dolsayev since the date of the kidnapping. Their names have not been found in any official detention facilities' records. The death of Beslan Dolsayev was officially acknowledged by a domestic court (see paragraph 70 above). Finally, the Government did not submit any explanation as to what had happened to the Dolsayev brothers after their arrest.
96. Having regard to the previous cases concerning disappearances in Chechnya which have come before the Court (see, among others, Bazorkina, cited above; Imakayeva, cited above; Luluyev and Others v. Russia, No. 69480/01, ECHR 2006-XIII; Baysayeva v. Russia, No. 74237/01, 5 April 2007; Akhmadova and Sadulayeva v. Russia, No. 40464/02, 10 May 2007; and Alikhadzhiyeva v. Russia, No. 68007/01, 5 July 2007), in the context of the conflict in the Chechen Republic, when a person is detained by unidentified servicemen without any subsequent acknowledgment of the detention, this can be regarded as life-threatening. The absence of Beslan, Rizvan, Rizavdi and Shuddi Dolsayev or of any news of them for several years supports this assumption.
97. The Court further notes that, regrettably, it has been unable to benefit from the results of the domestic investigation, owing to the Government's failure to disclose most of the documents from the file (see paragraph 80 above). Nevertheless, it is clear that the investigation did not identify the perpetrators of the kidnapping.
98. Accordingly, the Court finds that the evidence availabl
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