6.  The applicants were born in 1969 and 1940 respectively. They live in the village of Alleroy, the Kurchaloyevskiy District, in the Chechen Republic. The first applicant is the wife of Mr Aslanbek Ilyasovich Khamidov, born in 1965. The second applicant is his mother. 7.  At about 10 a.m. on 25 October 2000 a group of armed men arrived at the applicants’ house at 11 Tolstoy Street, the village of Alleroy, arrested Aslanbek Khamidov and took him away. 8.  According to the applicants, Aslanbek Khamidov was arrested in the course of a special “sweeping” operation (зачистка) carried out by the Russian armed forces in the village of Alleroy on 25 October 2000. The servicemen arrested ten other men residing in Alleroy and brought them, together with Aslanbek Khamidov, to a locally based military unit, presumably on the pretence of checking their identities. Later, the ten detainees were released. Aslanbek Khamidov was never seen again. 9.  On 15 January 2001 the local administration of the village of Alleroy issued a certificate confirming that on 25 October 2000 Aslanbek Khamidov had been arrested in the course of the “special sweeping operation”. 10.  On 25 October 2000 an identity and registration regime check was carried out in the village of Alleroy. 11.  At about 10 a.m. on 25 October 2000 at least ten unidentified armed men wearing camouflage uniforms took Aslanbek Khamidov away from the house at 11 Tolstoy Street in the village of Alleroy. 12.  On 1 March 2001 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic forwarded the application lodged by the NGO Memorial concerning Aslanbek Khamidov’s disappearance to the Argun interdistrict prosecutor’s office (“the interdistrict prosecutor’s office”) and ordered that an inquiry be carried out and a criminal case be opened if necessary. They commented that Aslanbek Khamidov had been “arrested by unidentified armed men in camouflage uniforms in the course of a registration regime check [in the village of Alleroy]”. 13.  On 18 April 2001 the interdistrict prosecutor’s office instituted an investigation into Aslanbek Khamidov’s kidnapping under Article 126 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (“aggravated kidnapping”). The case was assigned the number 39024. 14.  On 18 June 2001 the interdistrict prosecutor’s office suspended the investigation in case no. 39024 for failure to identify those responsible. 15.  On 23 June 2001 the department of the interior of the Kurchaloyevskiy District (“ROVD”) opened search case no. 30/15 in relation to Aslanbek Khamidov’s kidnapping. 16.  On 24 December 2001 the interdistrict prosecutor’s office notified the first applicant of the suspension of the investigation. They observed, inter alia, the following:
“The investigation has established that at 10 a.m. on 25 October 2000 ... unidentified servicemen of the military arrested A. Khamidov and took him away in an unknown direction. A. Khamidov’s whereabouts have not been established to date.” 17.  On 14 February 2002 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic informed the Shali Town Court of the Chechen Republic (“the town court”) of the following:
“At about 10 a.m. on 25 October 2000, in the course of a special operation, unidentified servicemen of the federal armed forces arrested Aslanbek Khamidov at 11 Tolstoy Street, the village of Alleroy, the Kurchaloyevskiy District of the Chechen Republic, and drove him away in an unknown direction.”
The prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic further mentioned that the investigation into Aslanbek Khamidov’s kidnapping had been opened on 18 April 2001 and suspended on 18 June 2001. 18.  On 28 February 2002 the interdistrict prosecutor’s office granted the first applicant victim status. The decision read as follows:
“On [the date is illegible] 2000 military servicemen took Aslandek Khamidov away from his home and drove him away in an unknown direction. A. Khamidov’s whereabouts are unknown to date.” 19.  On 15 March 2002 the town court declared Aslanbek Khamidov missing as from 25 October 2000, on the first applicant’s request. 20.  On 6 September 2002 an investigator of the ROVD questioned Mr T. who stated that on 25 October 2000 he had been arrested in the course of a special sweeping operation. When at the operation control centre, he had seen a number of people with their heads covered with shirts. He had heard and recognised Aslanbek Khamidov’s voice but had not seen the latter’s face as it had been hidden under the shirt. 21.  On 20 November 2002 the prosecutor’s office of the Kurchaloyevskiy District (“the district prosecutor’s office”) informed Mr Kh., a lawyer acting on the applicants’ behalf, that case no. 39024 had been opened on 18 April 2001 and that the first applicant – due to her victim status – was entitled to receive copies of the case materials from the district prosecutor’s office. 22.  On 12 December 2002 the first applicant complained to the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic of the ineffectiveness of the investigation into her husband’s kidnapping. 23.  On 23 February 2003 the investigation in case no. 39024 was suspended for failure to identify the perpetrators. 24.  On 9 December 2004 the district prosecutor’s office notified the first applicant of the decision of 23 February 2003. 25.  The applicants did not promptly inform the authorities of Aslanbek Khamidov’s kidnapping. They contacted the NGO Memorial only on 22 January 2001. 26.  On 24 March 2001 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic received a complaint concerning Aslanbek Khamidov’s kidnapping. 27.  On an unspecified date the interdistrict prosecutor’s office instituted an investigation into Aslanbek Khamidov’s abduction under Article 126 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (aggravated kidnapping). The case file was assigned the number 39024. 28.  On an unspecified date the first applicant was admitted to the proceedings as a victim and questioned. She stated that at about 9 a.m. on 25 October 2000 a group of armed servicemen wearing camouflage uniforms had arrived at her house in an Ural vehicle and an armoured personnel carrier (“APC”) and had entered it. One of them - a heavily built man of medium height with dark complexion - had worn no beard or moustache and spoken Russian with a slight accent. The servicemen had not checked her husband’s identity papers but had ordered him to take his shirt off. Aslanbek Khamidov had obeyed. The servicemen had noticed a scar left by a missile wound on his right shoulder and said that they would be taking him away for two hours to establish the origin of the wound. The first applicant had not seen her husband since then but had learned from fellow villagers that he had been brought to a filtration point in the village of Tsentoroy, kept there in a pit for 24 hours and then taken away in an unknown direction. On the same day two of her fellow villagers, Mr T. and Mr M., had been arrested and released seven days later from the territory of the Khankala military base. They had seen the first applicant’s husband at the Tsentoroy filtration point but not in Khankala. Two other villagers, Mr A. and Mr I., who had been arrested on 25 October 2000 and then released on the same day, had seen Aslanbek Khamidov at the Tsentoroy filtration point. Aslanbek Khamidov had received the missile wound after an explosion of a mine at the farm neighbouring their house and had then been admitted to Kurchaloy Hospital and treated there from 22 September to 2 October 2000. 29.  On unspecified dates Mr I., Mr U. and Mr M. were questioned. They stated that at about 11 a.m. on 25 October 2000 five unmasked men in camouflage uniforms had put them in an Ural vehicle and taken them to the village of Novogrozny. The witnesses had been kept there until the evening and then released in the presence of Mr D., the head of the local administration of Alleroy. 30.  On an unspecified date Mr and Ms A., Aslanbek Khamidov’s brother and his sister-in-law, were questioned. They stated that during the identity check carried out in Alleroy by the federal military ten men armed with machine guns speaking Russian without an accent had seen Aslanbek Khamidov’s missile wound and taken him away to the temporary federal military base near Tsentoroy and Alleroy. 31.  On an unspecified date Mr Kh., a surgeon of Kurchaloy Hospital, was questioned and stated that he did not remember a patient named Aslanbek Khamidov and could not give any information on the latter’s wound because the hospital archive materials dated prior to 2003 had been lost. 32.  An extract from Aslandek Khamidov’s medical record was included in the investigation file, according to which between 22 September and 2 October 2000 Aslandek Khamidov had been treated in Kurchaloy Hospital for numerous missile wounds. 33.  On an unspecified date Mr A., the head of the local administration of Alleroy between January 2000 and August 2001, was questioned and stated that on 25 October 2000 six villagers, including a distant relation of his – Aslandek Khamidov – had been arrested. All of them, except for Aslandek Khamidov, had been released later. Mr A. had issued a certificate concerning Aslandek Khamidov’s arrest in the course of the special sweeping operation upon the first applicant’s request as she had needed to present the certificate to the law-enforcement agencies. Mr A. was not sure whether Aslandek Khamidov had been kept in Tsentoroy upon his arrest. 34.  On 6 February 2003 the first applicant was questioned again. She stated that on 25 October 2000 twenty drunken servicemen in camouflage uniforms had entered her courtyard and ordered all men present to strip down to their trousers. They had taken Aslanbek Khamidov away, allegedly to verify the origin of his missile wound. 35.  On 12 February 2003 Mr T. was questioned. He stated that on 25 October 2000 he and Mr I. had been pasturing cattle on the outskirts of Alleroy. At about 9 or 10 a.m. Mr I.’s nephew had told them that there had been a military check in the village. Five or ten minutes later unmasked armed men in camouflage uniforms had arrived; one of them had had a metal detector. They had put Mr T. and Mr I. in an Ural vehicle and driven in the direction of the village of Novogrozny where the federal military had been located. At some point Mr T. and Mr I. had been taken out of the Ural vehicle and seen Mr U. and some other persons sitting on the ground with their heads hidden under shirts. Then Mr T. had been put in the Ural vehicle again and taken to other premises controlled by the federal forces. There he had been placed in a pit together with Mr M. and a young man named Sergey. Having spent a night in the pit Mr T. had been brought to a tent. Several unmasked men sitting at a table inside the tent had questioned him about their relations with Aslan Maskhadov, one of the insurgents’ leaders. In the afternoon the detainees had been put in a helicopter and flown for some ten or twenty minutes. Upon landing they had been driven to a house in which Mr T. had been kept for a week and questioned about his connections with the insurgents by an elderly blonde bespectacled man. Then Mr T. had been released. Mr T. did not mention that he had seen Aslanbek Khamidov on 25 October 2000 after the arrest. 36.  The investigators were informed that Aslandek Khamidov had not been kept in temporary detention facilities of the Kurchaloy, Itum-Kalinskiy and Naurskiy districts or in remand prisons of the North Caucasus Region. 37.  On an unspecified date the military commander of the Chechen Republic informed the investigators that units under his command had not carried out any special operations in Alleroy on 25 October 2000 and had not arrested Aslandek Khamidov. 38.  The prosecutor’s offices of the Groznenskiy, Shalinskiy and Nadterechny districts and the Achkhoy-Martan interdistrict prosecutor’s office informed the investigators that they had no information on Aslandek Khamidov’s arrest. 39.  The investigation was suspended a number of times for failure to identify the perpetrators. The decisions on suspension were repeatedly quashed by higher prosecutor’s offices. 40.  On an unspecified date the first applicant was questioned again and confirmed her previous statements. She also said that no pressure was being exercised upon her by law-enforcement agencies in relation to her application lodged with the Court. 41.  The investigators sent requests to correctional facility no. IZ-20/1 and military unit no. 20102 and received replies stating that they had no information on Aslanbek Khamidov’s disappearance. 42.  The investigation failed to find those responsible for Aslanbek Khamidov’s kidnapping and remained pending. 43.  Despite specific requests by the Court, the Government did not disclose the documents from the investigation file in case no. 39024, except for a barely legible copy of the transcript of Mr T.’s interview of 12 February 2003. Relying on 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 witnesses or other participants in the criminal proceedings.