The Court considers that the Government's 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 the objection should be joined to the merits and falls to be examined below under the relevant substantive provisions of the Convention.
III. The court's assessment
of the evidence and the establishment of the facts
A. The parties' submissions
74. The applicants maintained that it was beyond reasonable doubt that the men who killed Saidkhasan Dangayev were State agents. In support of that affirmation they referred to the following facts. At the material time the Staropromyslovskiy district of Grozny had been under the total control of federal troops. There were military checkpoints at the roads leading to and from the town. The armed men who had shot Saidkhasan Dangayev were tall, well-built and spoke unaccented Russian, which proved that they were not of Chechen origin. They had arrived at Saidkhasan Dangayev's house on a UAZ vehicle of a type normally used only by federal forces. Because of the curfew, such a large group of armed men could not have moved freely around the town between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless they had the permission of federal forces or were military servicemen. The men had twice stated that they were from the military commander's office and acted in a manner similar to that of special forces carrying out identity checks.
75. The Government submitted that Saidkhasan Dangayev had been killed by unidentified men. They further contended that the investigation into his death was pending, that there was no evidence that the killers were State agents and therefore no grounds for holding the State responsible for the alleged violations of the applicants' rights. The Government also stated that according to one theory examined by the investigators, the crime could have been committed by members of an illegal armed group.
B. The Court's assessment of the facts
76. The Court relies on a number of principles that have been developed in its case-law when it is faced with the task of establishing facts on which the parties disagree. As to the facts in dispute, the Court refers to its jurisprudence confirming the standard of proof "beyond reasonable doubt" in its assessment of the evidence (see {Avyar} v. Turkey, No. 25657/94, § 282, ECHR 2001-VII (extracts)). Such proof may follow from the coexistence of sufficiently strong, clear and concordant inferences or of similar unrebutted presumptions of fact. In this context, the conduct of the parties when evidence is being obtained has to be taken into account (see Ireland v. the United Kingdom, 18 January 1978, § 161, Series A No. 25).
77. The Court notes that despite its requests for a complete copy of the investigation file into the death of Saidkhasan Dangayev, the Government have produced only a small number of documents from the case file on the grounds that they are precluded from disclosing the remaining documents by Article 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Court observes that in previous cases it has found this explanation insufficient to justify the withholding of key information requested by the Court (see Imakayeva v. Russia, No. 7615/02, § 123, ECHR 2006-... (extracts)).
78. In view of this and bearing in mind the principles referred to above, the Court considers that it may draw inferences from the Government's conduct in respect of the well-foundedness of the applicants' allegations. It will thus proceed to examine crucial elements in the present case that should be taken into account when deciding whether the death of the applicants' relative can be attributed to the authorities.
79. The applicants alleged that the persons who ha
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