ed to the merits. It will now proceed to examine the arguments of the parties in the light of the provisions of the Convention and its relevant practice (for a relevant summary, see Estamirov and Others v. Russia, No. 60272/00, § 73 - 74, 12 October 2006).
127. The Court notes that the Russian legal system provides, in principle, two avenues of recourse for the victims of illegal and criminal acts attributable to the State or its agents, namely civil and criminal remedies.
128. As regards a civil action to obtain redress for damage sustained through the alleged illegal acts or unlawful conduct of State agents, this procedure alone cannot be regarded as an effective remedy in the context of claims brought under Article 2 of the Convention (see Khashiyev and Akayeva v. Russia, Nos. 57942/00 and 57945/00, §§ 119 - 121, 24 February 2005, and Estamirov and Others, cited above, § 77). In the light of the above, the Court confirms that the applicants were not obliged to pursue civil remedies. The preliminary objection in this regard is thus dismissed.
129. As regards criminal-law remedies, the Court observes that two sets of investigations into the disappearances have been pending since October and December 2002. The applicants and the Government disagreed as to their effectiveness.
130. The Court considers that this limb of the Government's preliminary objection raises issues concerning the effectiveness of the criminal investigation which are closely linked to the merits of the applicants' complaints. Thus, it considers that these matters fall to be examined below under the substantive provisions of the Convention.
II. The court's assessment of the evidence
and the establishment of the facts
A. The parties' arguments
131. The applicants maintained that it was beyond reasonable doubt that Magomed Shakhgiriyev, Ali Magomadov, Ismail Umarov, Umalat Abayev, Aslan Israilov and Khasin Yunusov had been taken away and then killed by State agents. The applicants submitted that their relatives had been detained by servicemen in the course of sweeping operations in Chechen-Aul and in Grozny. They had then been deprived of their lives, while still under the full control of State representatives. The applicants also noted that the State had failed to advance any other version of the events or to disclose documents from the criminal investigation files which could shed light on the circumstances of the deaths, and invited the Court to draw the relevant inferences.
132. The Government submitted that on 23 October 2002 "unidentified masked men in camouflage uniforms armed with machine guns" had abducted Magomed Shakhgiriyev, Ali Magomadov, Ismail Umarov and Umalat Abayev. They further contended that the investigation into the incident was still pending, that there was no evidence that the men had been State agents and that there were therefore no grounds for holding the State liable for the alleged violations of the applicants' rights. No information had been obtained by the investigation about the carrying out of special operations in Chechen-Aul on that day. They also referred to some other criminal investigations where gangs in Chechnya had been equipped with camouflage uniforms, weapons and forged documents belonging to members of the security forces. They also noted that the witnesses had said that some of the abductors had spoken among themselves in Chechen.
133. As to the disappearance on 3 November 2002 of Aslan Israilov and Khasin Yunusov, the Government stressed that the documents in the criminal investigation file had contained no information about the latter's detention in Grozny. The applicants and other relatives of the missing men had never informed the investigating authorities about the alleged detention of their relatives during a sweeping operation in Grozny. Furthermo
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