iminal investigation file No. 56192 into the disappearance of Khasin Yunusov, Aslan Israilov and Adash A. The investigation established that on 3 November 2002 at about 3 p.m. the three men had been seen in the Zara {cafe} on the road near Tolstoy-Yurt. They had been heading to Grozny in order to find missing fellow villagers. After that they had not been seen again. The investigation into the circumstances of the disappearance was continuing.
72. On 31 March 2003 Khasin Yunusov's sister was granted victim status in the proceedings.
73. On 18 April 2003 the SRJI wrote to the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office on behalf of the sixth and seventh applicants and asked it for an update in criminal case No. 56192.
74. According to the applicants, on 18 April 2003 three male bodies were discovered in Khankala, 400 metres away from the fence of the military base. The Government stated that the bodies had been found near the village of Berdykel in the Grozny district. The decision of the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office of 10 May 2003 to transfer the investigation contained the following description:
"On 18 April 2002 at about 5 p.m. in the village of Khankala, at the bottom of a quarry, about 400 metres from the location of the VV [Internal Troops] of the Ministry of the Interior and about one kilometre from the location of the VOGO and P [Temporary Operative Alignment of Bodies and Services] of the Ministry of the Interior, three unidentified male bodies with signs of violent death were discovered."
75. The bodies were inspected by a policeman of the Grozny ROVD and by a military prosecutor, who authorised the Grozny ROVD to take the bodies away for identification and burial. The bodies were taken to the mosque of the village of Berket-Yurt and the local policeman informed the policeman in Chechen-Aul and the relatives of the missing persons. On 24 April 2003 the policeman from Chechen-Aul and Khasin Yunusov's brother identified his body by the clothes he had been wearing. The relatives of Aslan Israilov and Adash A. also identified them by their clothes. It appears that the bodies had been in an advanced stage of decomposition. No documents were found on them.
76. On the same day the three bodies were taken to Chechen-Aul and buried. The applicants did not have a chance to look at them. It appears that upon the discovery of the bodies a report was drawn up, and photographs were taken of them and of the objects collected from them, but the applicants do not have copies of those reports. The applicants did not submit the bodies for an autopsy or a medical examination before burial. They referred to unnamed witness statements which indicated that the three bodies had numerous firearm wounds to the head and chest, that there were pieces of rope and that the right legs of the three bodies had been missing as if they had been tied together and blown up by an explosive charge.
77. The seventh applicant submitted that one month later the head of the administration of Chechen-Aul, Ts., and the local policeman who had first identified the bodies had been killed.
78. On 18 April 2003 the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office opened criminal investigation file No. 42076 following the discovery of three unidentified male bodies with signs of violent death. On 10 May 2003 this investigation was joined to criminal investigation No. 56192, following the identification of the corpses.
79. On 7 May 2003 the Grozny District Prosecutor's Office informed the SRJI and the seventh applicant that the criminal case had been pending with that office since 15 December 2002 as file No. 56192 and that the "interested parties" could access the documents within the file by visiting the premises of that office.
80. On 22 May 2003 the military prosecutor of military unit No. 20102 based in Khankala replied to the family of Khasin Yunus
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