The implication of any law-enforcement agencies in the crime had not been established. Aslanbek Khamzayev had not been prosecuted, arrested or placed in a temporary detention facility in the Chechen Republic.
42. The investigation had been suspended on several occasions for failure to identify the perpetrators and then resumed. The applicants had been duly informed of all decisions taken during the investigation, which was still pending under the supervision of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.
43. Despite specific requests by the Court the Government did not disclose any documents from the investigation file in case No. 50115. 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 violation of Article 161 of the 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.
II. Relevant domestic law
44. For a summary of the relevant domestic law see Akhmadova and Sadulayeva v. Russia, No. 40464/02, § 67 - 69, 10 May 2007.
THE LAW
I. The Government's objection
regarding abuse of the right of petition
45. The Government submitted that the application had not been lodged in order to restore the allegedly violated rights of the applicants. Its actual object and purpose was clearly political and it had been "lodged for ... purposes contrary to the goals and objectives of justice administered by the European Court of Human Rights". The Government concluded that there had been an abuse of the right of petition on the part of the applicants and that the application should be dismissed pursuant to Article 35 § 3 of the Convention.
46. The Court observes that the complaints the applicants brought to its attention concerned genuine grievances. Nothing in the case file reveals any appearance of an abuse of their right of individual petition. Accordingly, the Government's objection must be dismissed.
II. The Government's objection regarding locus standi
47. The Government suggested that the applicants had been unaware of the contents of the application form, which had been signed not by the applicants, but by their representatives and two other collaborators of the SRJI. Furthermore, they doubted that the SRJI had prepared the observations on the admissibility and merits of the application of 20 December 2007 "with [the] participation and ... consent" of the applicants. Referring to the Court's decision in Vasila and Petre Constantin in the name of Mihai Ciobanu v. Romania (No. 52414/99, 16 December 2003), the Government concluded that there was a lack of locus standi in the present case.
48. The Court notes that the applicants issued the SRJI with powers of attorney to represent their interests in the Strasbourg proceedings, in particular, to sign application forms and other materials submitted to the Registry on their behalf. There are no reasons to believe that the applicants issued the authorities against their will. Accordingly, the Government's objection must be dismissed.
III. The Government's objection regarding
non-exhaustion of domestic remedies
A. The parties' submissions
49. The Government contended that the complaint should be declared inadmissible for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies. They submitted that the investigation into Aslanbek Khamzayev's disappearance had not yet been completed. They further argued that it had been open to the applicants to challenge in court or before higher prosecutors any acts or omissions of the investigating or other law-enforce
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