CEDH · CASELAW;JUDGMENTS;CHAMBER;ENG — 12 mars 2009

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margin-left:17pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-indent:-17pt; text-align:justify } .s48DB3670 { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:36pt; text-indent:14.2pt; text-align:justify; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid } .s7CB9076 { margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:0pt; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid } .s507451D6 { width:4.53pt; display:inline-block } .s4A0CEAF8 { width:194.77pt; display:inline-block } .s7602FED2 { width:18.21pt; display:inline-block } .sC1AC44A4 { width:228.11pt; display:inline-block }       FIRST SECTION         CASE OF DZHAMBEKOVA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA   (Applications nos. 27238/03 and 35078/04)                 JUDGMENT       STRASBOURG   12 March 2009     FINAL   14/09/2009     This judgment may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Dzhambekova and Others v. Russia, The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:   Christos Rozakis, President,   Anatoly Kovler,   Elisabeth Steiner,   Dean Spielmann,   Sverre Erik Jebens,   Giorgio Malinverni,   George Nicolaou, judges, and Søren Nielsen, Section Registrar , Having deliberated in private on 17 February 2009, Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date: PROCEDURE 1.     The case originated in two applications (nos. 27238/03 and 35078/04) against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by 19 Russian nationals, listed below (“the applicants”), on 10 July 2003 and 19 August 2004 respectively. 2.     The applicants were represented by lawyers of the Stichting Russian Justice Initiative (“SRJI”), an NGO based in the Netherlands with a representative office in Russia. The Russian Government (“the Government”) were represented by Mr   P.   Laptev and Ms   V.   Milinchuk, former Representatives of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights. 3.     The applicants alleged that four of their relatives had disappeared after being detained by servicemen in Chechnya in 2001 and 2002. The first and fifth applicants also complained that their administrative detention in December 2002 was unlawful and about the conditions of that detention. They invoked Articles 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 13 of the Convention. 4.     On 1 September 2005 the President of the First Section decided to grant priority to the application under Rule 41 of the Rules of Court. 5.     By a decision of 13 March 2008, the Court joined the applications and declared them partly admissible. The President of the Chamber acceded to the Government’s request not to make publicly accessible the documents from the criminal investigation file deposited with the Registry in connection with the application (Rule 33 of the Rules of Court). 6.     The Chamber having decided, after consulting the parties, that no hearing on the merits was required (Rule 59 § 3 in fine ), the parties replied in writing to each other’s observations. THE FACTS I.     THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE 7.     The applicants in application no.   27238/03 are: Ms Zaynap Khadushovna Dzhambekova, born in 1959; Mr Adlan Lukayevich Dzhambekov, born in 1953; Ms Markha Adlanovna Dzhambekova, born in 1998; Mr Islam Adlanovich Dzhambekov, born in 1990; Ms Aminat Dodayevna Ependiyeva, born in 1949; Mr Ali Magomedovich Soltymuradov, born in 1992; Ms Toita Dodayevna Soltymuradova, born in 1954; Ms Aysha Magomedovna Soltymuradova, born in 1997; Ms Madina Magomedovna Soltymuradova, born in 1990; Mr Uvays Soltymuradovich Soltymuradov, born in 1930; Ms Zulpa Uvaysovna Soltymuradova, born in 1958; Ms Umisat Dodyevna Nakayeva, born in 1965; Ms Ayza Shaidovna Tokayeva, born in 1966; Ms Zara Baidovna Tatariyeva, born in 1940; Ms Kheda Rezvanovna Tatariyeva, born in 2000; Ms Zura Shamsudinovna Tatariyeva, born in 1967. Ms Marina Dukvakhayevna Islamova, born in 1980. The applicants in application no.   35078/04 are: Vakha Salmanovich Visaitov, born in 1944; Zulay Sayd-Khasanovna Magomadova, born 1949. 8.     They live in the Urus-Martan district, Chechnya. A.     The applicants’ relatives’ arrest 9.     The applicants belong to four families, members of whom were detained in three separate incidents in 2001 and 2002 in the town of Urus-Martan or in villages in the Urus-Martan district. The four men disappeared following their detention, and the families have been conducting the search for them together. 1.     Apprehension of Imran Dzhambekov 10.     The first four applicants are relatives of Imran Dzhambekov, who was born in 1979. The first two applicants are his mother and father, and the third and fourth applicants are his younger sister and brother. The Dzhambekov family live in their own house at 209 Sovetskaya Street in the village of Goyty in the Urus-Martan district. In March 2002 Imran Dzhambekov was a second-year student at the Grozny Oil Institute, in the faculty of Construction Management and Economics. The local police office in Urus-Martan certified that he had no problems with the law and was known to his neighbours and fellow students as a responsible member of the community. In May 2003, at the first applicant’s request, the Goyty village policeman certified that there was no reason to suspect Imran Dzhambekov of involvement with illegal armed groups. 11.     On the evening of 19 March 2002 the first four applicants and Imran Dzhambekov were at home. At about midnight the first applicant heard someone trying to open the front door. She walked to the door, which opened, and a man wearing camouflage and a mask entered and pointed a machine gun at her. He turned on the light, and then about twelve more servicemen entered the house. They were all armed and masked. They spoke Russian without any accent and the first applicant noticed blue eyes and light features through the openings in the masks. The first applicant asked them what they wanted but they told her to keep quiet. They did not explain anything to the applicants and did not produce any papers. 12.     The servicemen asked the first applicant to indicate who was in which room of the house. The first applicant pointed to the room where her husband, the second applicant, was sleeping and to the room where her elder son Imran Dzhambekov was sleeping. One serviceman went into the second applicant’s room, and about ten of them went into Imran’s room. The first applicant managed to get past the servicemen into her son’s room and saw him lying on the floor face down, his hands tied behind his back. He was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts in which he had been sleeping. The servicemen ordered him to be silent and asked the first applicant her son’s name and date of birth. Then they ordered her to fetch his passport and other documents, which she did. 13.     In the meantime the first and second applicants’ two minor children, the third and fourth applicants, started to cry and one of the soldiers took the children and the first applicant and escorted them into the second applicant’s room. Then they closed the door and pushed some furniture against it to block it from the outside. The second applicant received several blows from the servicemen in the face and in the stomach, and for some time lay on the floor in pain. When the applicants managed to open the door after about ten minutes, the servicemen had already left and taken Imran Dzhambekov with them. 14.     The first applicant ran along the street crying out her son’s name. She saw a group of servicemen walking towards two armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and one UAZ vehicle stationed on the crossroads of Sovetskaya Street and Titova Street. The second applicant meanwhile grabbed a metal rod and started to knock on a gas pipe pillar in order to wake up the neighbours. 15.     By the time the first applicant reached the crossroads, the military had boarded the vehicles and left along Titova Street. The first applicant tried to catch up with them but they turned into Pushkina Street. 16.     In the meantime, the second applicant got into his car and also tried to catch the military vehicles. At some point he picked up his wife, the first applicant, in the street and together they continued along the tracks left by the APCs until they reached the main road, from where there were two directions out of the village – to the north towards Grozny, or to the south towards Urus-Martan. Both exits were controlled by Russian military roadblocks. 17.     The first and second applicants first went to the roadblock at the exit towards Grozny. They personally knew a military serviceman who served there, Sergey from St. Petersburg, and the first applicant walked up to the roadblock and called him by name. When he came out she told him that servicemen in APCs had detained her son, and Sergey told her that no traffic had entered the village that night from their side, and that they should go to the roadblock on the road leading to Urus-Martan. 18.     The applicants then went to the house of the local policeman and asked him to go with them, but he refused. He told them to go and wait for the military vehicles at the roadblock until 6 a.m. because nobody would be allowed to travel during the curfew. They then went to the house of the head of the village administration, but did not find him. 19.     After that the first and second applicants went to the roadblock on the road leading towards Urus-Martan. There, at about 1.30 a.m., they saw two APCs and a UAZ vehicle heading towards Urus-Martan. They clearly noted the identification number of one of the APCs as 237, and a long dent and white paint marks on the back of the UAZ. Later the neighbours told them that they had noted the APC identification numbers as 237 and 246, and the UAZ number plate as “378-t”. 20.     The first and second applicants returned home and decided to continue the search in the morning, after the end of the curfew. In the street in front of their house they found Imran Dzhambekov’s one shoe and socks. They realised that he had been taken away in his shorts and T-shirt and barefoot, despite the cold. 21.     In addition to their own detailed statements, the applicants submitted witness statements from their neighbours about the events of the night of 19-20 March 2002, which corroborated their submissions. One witness testified that she had seen bruises on the second applicant’s face from the blow he had received that night. The neighbours testified that they had heard the first applicant crying out her son’s name and the knocking sound made by the second applicant, and had seen the military in two APCs and a man in underwear being put into an APC. 22.     The applicants also submitted a hand-drawn map of Goyty indicating the places to which they had referred. 23.     The applicants have had no news of Imran Dzhambekov since that night. 24.     The Government in their observations submitted in May 2006 (hereinafter “the first set of observations) did not dispute most of the facts as presented by the applicants. They stated that it had been established that at about midnight on 19 March 2002 unidentified men wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with automatic weapons had entered the applicants’ house at 209 Sovetsakaya Street in Goyty and taken away Imran Dzhambekov. In their subsequent observations submitted in March 2008 after the application had been declared admissible (“the second set of observations”) they disputed certain aspects of the applicants’ version of the events with reference to the documents from the criminal investigation file (see details below). 2.     Apprehension of Magomed Soltymuradov 25.     Applicants five to thirteen are relatives of Magomed Dodiyevich Soltymuradov, who was born in 1969. The fifth, seventh and twelfth applicants are his sisters, the sixth, eighth and ninth applicants his son and daughters, the tenth applicant his uncle and the eleventh applicant his cousin. The thirteenth applicant is Magomed Soltymuradov’s wife. The applicants live in two private houses located in Urus-Martan at nos. 5 and 7   Polevaya Street. Magomed Soltymuradov, his wife and three children lived at no. 5, while his uncle and cousin, the tenth and eleventh applicants, live in no. 7. In addition, there is another building in the same household where the fifth applicant lives. 26.     Magomed Soltymuradov is a trained economist. Before the hostilities started he worked in a bank. Between November 1999 and December 2001 he lived as an internally displaced person with his wife and three children in the Volgograd Region. Since his return to Urus-Martan he had been unemployed, while his wife, the thirteenth applicant, worked as a medical worker in a hospital. The applicants stated that Magomed Soltymuradov had suffered from an ulcer since childhood and required constant medical treatment. 27.     On the night of 10-11 January 2002 the thirteenth applicant was in the hospital where she was working the night shift. The sixth, eighth and ninth applicants were at home with their father, Magomed Soltymuradov. They slept through the night, and at 7 a.m. when the ninth applicant woke up and was getting ready for school, she discovered that her father was not at home and that the front door had been broken down. 28 .     The eleventh applicant testified that at about 2 a.m. on 11 January 2002 she had heard noises at the front door of her house. She had gone to the door, turned on the lights and asked in Russian who was there. She had been told in Russian to open the door for a document check. When she opened the door, four armed men in camouflage uniforms and wearing masks had entered the house. They had told her to produce her passport and had searched her room, including the bed and wardrobe. 29 .     They had then proceeded to search the room of the tenth applicant, her father. After about twenty minutes they had left. The tenth and eleventh applicants then heard a car leaving the junction of Polevaya Street and Chekhova Street, from the direction of the house of Magomed Soltymuradov. 30.     The fifth applicant said that in the middle of the night she had heard noises in her house but had not understood what was going on. She had looked out into the courtyard, but it was dark and she could not see anything. She had then fallen asleep. 31.     At about 7 a.m. on 11 January 2002 the ninth applicant, Madina Soltymuradova, the daughter of Magomed Soltymuradov, alerted the tenth and eleventh applicants to her father’s absence. The relatives had together inspected the fresh snow in the courtyard, where they could clearly see traces of military boots with the marking “USSR”. There were also imprints of sports shoes. The applicants estimated that there must have been about twenty people in the courtyard. The footprints led to houses nos. 5 and 7, and inside the houses. In both buildings the front doors had been broken down. Magomed Soltymuradov’s room and bed were in disorder. The applicants also realised that 4,000 roubles (RUB) they had in cash had gone missing. 32.     The applicants submitted a hand-drawn map of the neighbourhood indicating the buildings to which they referred and the traces left by the boots. 33.     The applicants have not had any news of Magomed Soltymuradov since 11 January 2002. 34.     The Government in their first set of observations did not dispute the facts as presented by the applicants. They stated that it had been established that at about 3   a.m. on 11 January 2002 unidentified armed men wearing camouflage uniforms and masks and armed with automatic weapons had entered the household at no. 5 Polevaya Street in Urus-Martan and taken away Magomed Soltymuradov, whose whereabouts remained unknown. In their second set of observations the Government disputed the applicants’ version of their relative’s arrest, in view of the absence of evidence from the eye-witnesses that he had actually been taken away by armed men (see details below). They also noted that the applicants had not informed the investigation about the allegedly missing money. 3.     Apprehension of Rizvan Tatariyev 35.     Applicants fourteen to seventeen are relatives of Rizvan Shamsudinovich Tatariyev, who was born in 1977. The fourteenth applicant is his mother, the fifteenth applicant is his daughter, the sixteenth applicant his sister and the seventeenth applicant his wife. The applicants live in two private houses joined by a common courtyard, located at 16 Bolnichnaya Street in Gekhi, Urus-Martan district. Six members of the family of Arbi T., Rizvan Tatatriyev’s brother, live in the same household. Rizvan Tatariyev worked as a construction worker. In May 2003 the Gekhi village policeman and the head of the village administration certified that there was no reason to suspect him of involvement with illegal armed groups. 36.     On the night of 22 December 2001 the applicants and other members of their family were at home sleeping. At about   3 a.m. a large group of some twenty servicemen forcibly entered the household. They were armed with hand pistols, automatic weapons and truncheons and wearing camouflage uniforms and masks. They were tall and well-built and spoke Russian without any accent. They wore head lamps, so the applicants could not see their faces clearly, but the applicants were convinced that they belonged to the special forces. 37.     The applicants were awoken by the soldiers who were already in the house and had spread out into the rooms. They first went to the room of Rizvan Tatariyev’s nephew, Ruslan T., who at that time was 21 years old. They forced him onto the floor and held him there using their feet and truncheons. One of the female relatives fetched his passport at the request of the servicemen, who inspected it and said to another: “It’s not him.” 38.     They then proceeded to the room where the fourteenth applicant and her son Rizvan Tatariyev had been sleeping. Several servicemen threw Rizvan Tatariyev onto the floor and started to kick him, before tying his hands behind his back. They inspected his driving licence and said “It’s him”. They did not ask for his passport. In the meantime the fourteenth applicant tried to get to her son, but the military pushed her away. Then they escorted Rizvan Tatariyev outside through the back door and left one by one. They warned the applicants not to go outside the house or they would shoot. 39 .     The applicants submitted that, according to their neighbours’ statements, the military had arrived in an APC and two UAZ vehicles which they had parked about 80 metres from the house. When the applicants came out of the house some time after the departure of the armed men, they found the gates open, but the military had already left. 40.     In addition to their own statements and the statements by their relatives who lived in the same household, the applicants submitted a hand-drawn map of the area and of the two houses, noting the places to which they had referred in their statements. In the morning they learnt that on the same night the servicemen had detained and taken away another man in Gekhi, Sharpudi Visaitov. 41.     The applicants have not seen or heard from their relative Rizvan Tatariyev since the night of 21-22 December 2001. 42.     The Government in their first set of observations did not dispute most of the facts as presented by the applicants. They stated that it had been established that at about 4   a.m. on 22 December 2001 unidentified armed men wearing masks had taken Rizvan Tatariyev away from his home, and that his whereabouts remained unknown. In the second set of observations the Government questioned the accuracy of certain details in the witness statements, including the alleged presence of the military vehicles (see below). 4.     Apprehension of Sharpudi Visaitov 43.     The eighteenth and nineteenth applicants are married. They are the father and mother of Sharpudi Vakhayevich Visaitov, who was born in 1980. The applicants live with their eight children, their daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a private house at 20 Nuradilova Street in Gekhi, Urus-Martan district. Their son Sharpudi Visaitov worked as a car mechanic. In May 2003 the Gekhi village policeman and the head of the village administration certified that there was no reason to suspect Sharpudi Visaitov of involvement with illegal armed groups. 44.     On the night of 21 to 22 December 2001 the applicants and their family members were at home sleeping. At about 4 a.m. a large group of servicemen in camouflage uniforms forcibly entered their house. They were armed with machine guns and spoke Russian without any accent. Some of them wore masks, while others did not and had typically Slavic features. They were wearing helmets with head lamps. The men did not produce identity papers or any documents to justify their actions and gave no explanation. 45.     The applicants were woken up by the servicemen who were in their room and pointing automatic rifles at them. They told them to be quiet, not to wake up the children and to produce their identity documents for checking. They also asked them how many men there were in the house and if there were any weapons, to which the eighteenth applicant replied in the negative. 46.     The men proceeded to search the rooms and inspected the passports of the occupants. In the meantime a group of soldiers remained in the courtyard, aiming their weapons at the windows. 47.     The military then ordered four of the applicants’ sons, including Sharpudi Visaitov, to go into the courtyard. They were not permitted to dress or to put on their shoes. After a while Sharpudi’s three brothers were released and returned to the house one by one. The servicemen left after about thirty minutes and took Sharpudi Visaitov with them. Before leaving they told the applicants to remain inside the house for twenty minutes because the house was being watched by snipers and they would be shot at if they disobeyed. After the departure of the servicemen the applicants realised that they had taken Sharpudi Visaitov’s passport and some family photos. 48.     In the morning of 22 December 2001 the applicants found Sharpudi Visaitov’s slippers in the courtyard and saw the imprints of bare feet in the snow, which they concluded were his. They found an opening cut in the metal wire fence around their vegetable patch, through which the servicemen had arrived and departed. 49.     Later on they discovered that on the same night another person from the village had been detained, Rizvan Tatariyev. The Tatariyevs’ house is situated in Bolnichnaya Street, which is parallel to Nuradilova Street, so that the two households border each other’s back gardens. The applicants submitted a hand-drawn map of the area and of the house. 50.     They also identified witnesses from among their neighbours who testified that they had seen a large group of servicemen in the Visaitovs’ house on that night at about 4 a.m., as well as an APC and another vehicle stationed in the neighbouring Kirova Street. These statements were annexed to their application. 51.     The applicants submitted that two days after the detention of Sharpudi Visaitov an APC and a UAZ vehicle had arrived at their house. A group of military servicemen had told them that if they did not give up their weapons they would take away other men, as they had done with Sharpudi. The applicants had no weapons to surrender, and the military searched the house and left without taking anything. They did not identify themselves or present any papers. The applicants said that the vehicles had left in the direction of Urus-Martan. 52.     The Government in their observations did not dispute most of the facts as presented by the applicants. They stated that it had been established that at about 4   a.m. on 22 December 2001 unidentified armed men wearing masks had taken Sharpudi Visaitov away from his home, and that his whereabouts remained unknown. B.     The search for Imran Dzhambekov, Magomed Soltymuradov, Rizvan Tatariyev and Sharpudi Visaitov and the investigation 53.     Immediately after the detention of their family members the applicants started to search for them. They coordinated their actions and conducted part of the search together. The search was primarily carried out by the mothers or sisters of the detained men. At some point in 2003 the applicants set up a non-governmental organisation called the “Society of War Victims”, which was headed by the first applicant. Part of the search was conducted on behalf of this NGO. 54.     On numerous occasions, both in person and in writing, they applied to prosecutors at various levels, to the Ministry of the Interior, the Special Envoy of the Russian President for Rights and Freedoms in the Chechen Republic, military commanders, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the administrative authorities in Chechnya and to the media and public figures. They also personally visited detention centres, police stations, military bases and prisons in Chechnya as well as further afield in the Northern Caucasus. 55.     Besides personal visits, the applicants addressed numerous letters to the prosecutors and other authorities in which they described the circumstances in which their relatives had been detained and asked for assistance and details of the investigation. The applicants submitted copies of some of the letters they had written. 56.     The applicants received hardly any substantive information from official bodies about the investigations into the disappearances. On several occasions they were sent copies of letters forwarding their requests to different prosecution services. Below is a summary of the letters retained by the applicants and the replies they received from the authorities, and of other relevant developments. 1.     Search for Imran Dzhambekov 57.     Imran Dzhambekov was detained in the early hours of 20 March 2002. Once the curfew was over at 6 a.m. his parents, the first and second applicants, took warm clothes for him and went to Urus-Martan, in the direction taken by the military vehicles that had detained him. They personally visited the Urus-Martan temporary district department of the interior (VOVD) and the military commander’s office. They were not allowed to enter the buildings, but the officers denied that Imran Dzhambekov had been detained by them. 58.     On 20 March 2002 the applicants submitted a written application to the Urus-Martan district prosecutor, complaining of the unlawful arrest of their son by military servicemen travelling in two APCs. The applicants were received by the district prosecutor, who in their presence called the VOVD, the military commander’s office and the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior special operations division no. 100 (referred to as DON-100). These services denied that their vehicles or servicemen had been involved in any operations in the village of Goyty on that night and stated that they had not detained Imran Dzhambekov. 59.     On the same day at about 2 p.m. the first and second applicants talked to officer Ya., the deputy military commander of the Urus-Martan district, who allegedly told them that a detainee “from the left side of Sovetskaya Street in Goyty” had been taken that night to the “boarding school”. The applicants said that the Urus-Martan VOVD was located in the premises of the former boarding school. 60.     Also on 20 March 2002, while standing in front of the gates of the VOVD, the applicants noticed a UAZ vehicle which they identified by white paint marks and a dent on the back as the vehicle involved in their son’s arrest. They also noted the vehicle’s number plates. 61.     On 21 March 2002 the applicants returned to Urus-Martan. They said that they were informed by an officer of the military commander’s office that their son was being held for questioning in the VOVD, and would be released in a day or two. 62.     On 23 March 2002 the applicants, through a middleman, contacted the chief of staff of the district military commander’s office A., who told them that they should look for their son at Khankala (the main Russian military base in Chechnya) and that he had been in the custody of the Regional Department for Combating Organised Crime (RUBOP). On the same day the second applicant spoke to a police detective from the VOVD, Alik Kh., who confirmed that the UAZ vehicle belonged to the head of the VOVD and advised him to look for his son at the RUBOP branch in Grozny. In early April an officer at the Urus-Martan district military commander’s office also told the first and second applicants that their son had been detained by the Grozny branch of RUBOP. 63.     At about 10 a.m. on 24 March 2002 the second applicant spoke to the head of the criminal investigation department of the VOVD, K., in the courtyard of the VOVD building. The second applicant showed him the UAZ vehicle, but the officer said that the car could have been taken without the VOVD’s knowledge; he again denied any knowledge of Imran Dzhambekov’s detention. 64.     On 25 March 2002 the Urus-Martan district prosecutor’s office (“the district prosecutor’s office”) opened criminal investigation file no.   61058 into the kidnapping of Imran Dzhambekov. On the same day the first applicant communicated all the known details of the APCs and the UAZ vehicle to the prosecutor’s office. 65.     At the end of March 2002 the first applicant talked to investigator Sergey L. from the district prosecutor’s office, who was in charge of her son’s case. He told her that he could not question anyone in the military commander’s office but that he had carried out checks and established that the APCs with the said numbers belonged to the district military commander’s office and the UAZ to the VOVD. He also said that when he had tried to put some questions to a serviceman from the commander’s office he had been threatened. The same investigator later told the applicants that he had visited the VOVD personally and had not found Imran Dzhambekov, but “that there were only four cells there to which he had been given access”. 66.     The applicants said that on 15 April 2002 the second applicant had again met the head of the criminal investigation department of the VOVD, K., at the VOVD who had denied that Imran Dzhambekov had ever been detained there. As proof, the officer showed the second applicant the log of detainees. The second applicant noted the name “Dzhanashvili” and suggested that it could have been his son, but that his name had been deliberately misspelled. The officer said that he could not show him that man either and refused to assist the applicants any further. 67.     The first and second applicants also explained that they had attempted to find a middleman among the military servicemen in order to pay for their son’s release, but had been told that it was impossible. Some time in April the applicants had also contacted a man who worked in Khankala who told them that Imran Dzhambekov had allegedly been detained there, that he had been charged with crimes related to terrorism and that he had been transferred to Rostov-on-Don on 18 or 24 April with a group of other detainees. 68.     On 16 May 2002 the first applicant had applied in person to the acting Chechnya Prosecutor, Mr Chernov, who invited her to a meeting in his office with a senior military prosecutor, Mr Kolomeyets. The first applicant recounted the story of her son’s detention to both men, who assured her that, since details such as the APC and the UAZ numbers were known, the case would certainly be resolved. The military prosecutor assured the applicant that he too would take the case under his personal supervision. 69.     On 24 May 2002 the first applicant wrote to the head of the Urus-Martan VOVD and asked him to investigate her son’s disappearance and the involvement of the two APCs and the UAZ vehicle, the numbers and other details of which she indicated. 70.     On 28 May 2002 the first applicant was granted victim status in the criminal investigation into her son’s abduction. 71.     On 10 June 2002 the first applicant again requested the Chechnya Prosecutor to organise an effective investigation into her son’s abduction. She stated in her letter the known details of the vehicles that had taken him away and requested that it be established to which authority they belonged. 72.     On 11 June 2002 the district prosecutor’s office replied to the applicants that all the necessary investigative measures had been carried out, but had not led to the identification of the culprits. 73.     On 22 June 2002 the head of the Urus-Martan district department of the interior (ROVD) informed the first applicant that their office had opened a search file on her missing son and that she would be informed of the results. 74.     On 9 July 2002 the Chechnya Prosecutor’s Office informed the first applicant that their office had examined the criminal investigation file concerning her son’s abduction, quashed the decision to adjourn the criminal investigation and forwarded the case for further investigation to the district prosecutor’s office. 75.     On 2 September 2002 the first applicant wrote a letter to the Urus-Martan military commander’s office giving details of her son’s abduction and requested an investigation to find out his whereabouts. 76.     On 23 January 2003 the Chechnya department of the FSB informed the first applicant that they had no information regarding Imran Dzhambekov and that he was not suspected of participation in illegal activities. Her letter was forwarded to the military prosecutor of the United Group Alignment (UGA) in the Northern Caucasus. 77.     On 31 January 2003 the military prosecutor of the UGA forwarded the first applicant’s letter to the military prosecutor of military unit no.   20102, based in Khankala, and instructed him to verify whether the UAZ vehicle with the number plate indicated by the applicant belonged to the VOVD of Urus-Martan. 78.     On 3 February 2003 the district prosecutor’s office informed the first applicant that the investigation of criminal case no.   61058 into her son’s abduction had been adjourned on 25 May 2002 owing to a failure to identify the culprits, and had been reopened on 30 January 2003. 79.     On 14 February 2003 the Chechnya Prosecutor’s Office informed the first applicant that the investigation in criminal case no.   61058 had been resumed on 30 January 2003 and that it was checking the information concerning the APCs and the UAZ vehicle communicated by her. 80.     On 18 February 2003 the military prosecutor of military unit no.   20102 responded to the first applicant, informing her that, as with her previous requests, this was not a matter for the military prosecutor’s office. The letter further informed her that the criminal investigation into her son’s abduction would only be transferred from the Urus-Martan district prosecutor’s office to the military prosecutor’s office if it was established that military servicemen where implicated in the crime. 81.     On 17 March 2003 the Prosecutor General’s Office wrote to a member of the State Duma, Mr Nikitin, in reply to his enquiry concerning missing persons and crimes against civilians in Chechnya. It stated that 1,250 criminal investigation files had been opened in respect of 1,802 kidnapped or missing persons. In 2002 alone 565 criminal cases had been opened in respect of 738 missing persons. 559 persons had been found. The letter listed a number of steps taken by the prosecutor’s office in order to prevent disappearances and to effectively investigate such cases, including the issue of a number of instructions and the holding of coordination meetings between various bodies. The letter also contained a list of missing persons, which included Imran Dzhambekov, Magomed Soltymuradov, Rizvan Tatariyev and Sharpudi Visaitov, and stated that criminal investigations were pending into each of those cases. It added that the involvement of servicemen from the Ministry of Defence or Ministry of the Interior had not been established in any of the cases, and the investigation into all the cases had been adjourned. Measures to solve the crimes were continuing. On 3 April 2003 Mr Nikitin forwarded the Prosecutor General’s Office’s response to the first applicant for information. 82.     On 8 April 2003 the first applicant submitted applications to the Minister of the Interior and to the Speakers of the two Chambers of the Federal Assembly, asking them to take into account the situation of the “disappeared” when working on a draft document on the granting of amnesties in respect of events in Chechnya. 83.     On 17 April 2003 the Chechnya Prosecutor’s Office wrote to the first applicant in response to her complaint. It stated that following her son’s kidnapping by unknown persons wearing camouflage on 20 March 2002, criminal case no.   61058 had been opened on 25 March 2002 by the district prosecutor’s office under Article 126, part 2 of the Criminal Code. On 25   May 2002 the investigation had been adjourned owing to a failure to identify the culprits. On 30 January 2003 the investigation had been reopened and accepted for further examination by an investigator from the district prosecutor’s office. During this additional investigation the first applicant had been granted victim status and the second applicant and other witnesses had been questioned about the circumstances of the abduction. The letter further stated that the investigation had forwarded requests for information to the various military and police authorities in order to identify APCs nos.   237 and 246 and the UAZ vehicle with registration number 378-02 that had been involved in the abduction. Additional requests for information had been forwarded to the Orenburg Region. The letter concluded that, unfortunately, these investigative steps had not led to the identification of the culprits or to the establishment of Imran Dzhambekov’s whereabouts. The investigation had again been adjourned, but attempts to solve the crime were continuing. 84.     On 18 April 2003 the first applicant, acting in her capacity as the head of the NGO “Society of War Victims”, forwarded a list of missing persons who had disappeared following their detention by the “power structures” in the Urus-Martan district to the Urus-Martan ROVD and asked for its assistance in finding them. 85.     On 21 April 2003 the military prosecutor of the UGA informed the applicants that, according to the information obtained from the military and police authorities of the Urus-Martan district, APCs with the identification numbers 237 and 246 and the UAZ vehicle with registration number R378-02 did not belong to any of these authorities. No special operations had been carried out in Goyty on the night of 19-20 March 2002 and Mr   Dzhambekov had not been detained by servicemen from the federal forces. The letter advised the first applicant to direct further queries to the district prosecutor’s office in charge of the case. 86.     On 22 April 2003 the SRJI, acting on the first applicant’s behalf, wrote to the district prosecutor and the Chechnya Prosecutor asking them to provide an update of the criminal investigation into Mr   Dzhambekov’s disappearance, including the results of the checks concerning the number plates of the vehicles involved. 87.     On 29 April 2003 the head of the Urus-Martan district administration wrote to the first applicant and informed her that the district administration was struggling to cope with the number of “enforced disappearances”. The letter stated that between 1 January and 22 April 2003 alone 27 cases of “disappearances” had been recorded in the district, and that as a result of the efforts made by the authorities, four persons had been released and three bodies found. 88.     On 10 June 2003 the district prosecutor’s office informed the first applicant that on 10 June 2003 their office had reopened the investigation into her son’s abduction. 89.     On 31 July 2003 and 20 August 2003 the second applicant wrote to the Chechnya Prosecutor. He restated the known circumstances of his son’s detention on 20 March 2002, including the details of the vehicles involved. He also referred to the information collected by him and his wife in the weeks following the abduction, according to which the APCs had passed through the military checkpoints without any problems and the UAZ vehicle belonged to the head of the Urus-Martan VOVD. He further complained that when he had been questioned on 31 January 2003 by an investigator from the district prosecutor’s office, the investigator had refused to record in the minutes of the interview full information about the number plates of the vehicles involved. The second applicant said that when he had subsequently accessed the minutes he had observed that the investigator had noted the APC number as “23”, even though he had given the number as “237”, and had failed to record the number plates of the UAZ. The second applicant requested the prosecutor to resume the investigation of criminal case no.   61068 and to take the action necessary to identify the servicemen responsible, as well as to transfer the case for investigation to the military prosecutor’s office in view of the involvement of military servicemen in the abduction. 90.     On 15 September 2003 the Chechnya Prosecutor’s Office informed the second applicant that following his complaint the decision of 10 July 2003 to adjourn the investigation had been reversed and on 12 September 2003 the investigation had been resumed by the district prosecutor’s office. 91.     It appears that the investigation was adjourned again on 12 October 2003. 92.     In January 2004 several applicants, including the first applicant, joined the open letter to President Putin signed by 131 relatives of persons who had “disappeared” in Chechnya. They referred to the information that in most known cases the disappeared persons had been taken away by State agents, judging from the use of military vehicles and their ability to travel unhindered in groups through military and security roadblocks. They deplored the absence of any official information about their family members following such detention and asked the President to ensure that investigations be conducted into such crimes. 93.     At some point the applicants requested the district prosecutor’s office to grant them access t