5.  The applicant was born in 1944 and lives in the village of Goyty, the Urus-Martan District, in the Chechen Republic. 6.  The applicant was married to Mr Salman Abdulazizov, born in 1950. Salman Abdulazizov was a Category 1 disabled person. The couple are the parents of six children. 7.  At about 2 a.m. on 12 February 2001 an armoured personnel carrier (“APC”) and several UAZ vehicles with illegible registration numbers arrived at the applicant’s house. Around twenty men armed with machine guns and sniper rifles got out of the vehicles and burst in. They did not identify themselves but the applicant believed that they belonged to the Russian military. 8.  The servicemen searched the house without producing any warrant. Then they took Salman Abdulazizov away and put him into a Ural vehicle. There were also a red Niva car with no rear window, a Volga car and several UAZ vehicles parked nearby; the servicemen got into those vehicles and drove away. The applicant has not seen her husband since then. 9.  On the night of 12 February 2001 five other inhabitants of the village of Goyty – Mr E., Mr I., Mr V. and two brothers, Mr D.M. and Mr V.M. – were abducted under similar circumstances. Later they were released and told the applicant that they had been kept together with her husband at the military commander’s office of the Urus-Martan District. 10.  The applicant provided the Court with written statements by several Goyty villagers, including Mr I. and Mr V.M., who had been arrested on the night of 11-12 February 2001.
(a)  Mr I.’s statement 11.  At about 1 a.m. on 12 February 2001 Mr I. was sleeping at his home. Around twenty-five masked men in camouflage uniforms armed with sniper rifles entered his courtyard; seven of them proceeded to his house. The armed men spoke Russian without accent. They ordered Mr I. to get dressed and took him outside. The armed men searched and handcuffed Mr I. Some ten minutes later a Ural vehicle and two UAZ vehicles arrived. The armed men covered Mr I.’s eyes with a cap and then fastened it with adhesive tape. However, Mr I. could see a little through holes. The armed men were putting Mr I. inside the Ural vehicle when he saw Salman Abdulazizov standing next to it. The servicemen told Salman Abdulazizov to climb into the Ural; he replied that he could not do it because he had only one leg. Then the men put him into the vehicle. Mr I. said hello to Salman Abdulazizov; a serviceman hit him, ordering him to keep silent. The Ural travelled for some fifteen minutes and then stopped. Mr I. was taken out of the vehicle and brought inside a building with stairs. He was left sitting in a corridor on a concrete floor for forty-eight hours. He was not given any food or drinks. Salman Abdulazizov spent a night in the same corridor and was questioned by servicemen on several occasions. Twenty-four hours later Salman Abdulazizov was taken away. Later someone approached Mr I. and asked him about Salman Abdulazizov. Two or three days later Mr I. was taken out of the building and put into a car. The servicemen brought him to the military commander’s office of Goyty and left there. Mr I. spent an hour in the premises of the military commander’s office of Goyty. Then his fellow villager Mr G. took him home.
(b)  Mr V.M.’s statement 12.  In 2001 the inhabitants of Goyty obtained the federal military’s permission to organise a civilian night watch to protect their village from marauders. 13.  At about 1 a.m. on 12 February 2001 Mr V.M. was on his way home after serving his shift on the night watch. At some point he noticed twelve or fifteen heavily armed men in masks and camouflage uniforms. The servicemen asked him where he was going and then forced him on to the ground. Ten minutes later the men entered Mr V.M.’s house and took his brother, Mr D.M., outside. The servicemen handcuffed the two men and took Mr V.M. to the Ural vehicle parked near the applicant’s house. There were also three or four APCs and Urals on the street. Mr V.M. saw Salman Abdulazizov and greeted him in Chechen; both of them were put into the Ural. The servicemen put a cap over Mr V.M.’s eyes and fastened it with adhesive tape. The vehicle drove off in the direction of Urus-Martan; there were two federal checkpoints on the road between Goyty and Urus-Martan. After a twenty-minute ride Mr V.M. was taken out of the vehicle and led to the first or second floor of a building. He and his brother were kept in a big room. During the first two nights Mr V.M. did not see Salman Abdulazizov, but on the third night he saw a bearded one-legged man sitting on a chair and recognised him as Salman Abdulazizov. Mr V.M. could not see clearly because of the cap over his eyes. Later Mr V.M. was taken to another room and spent three days there. He was kept in the building for six days in total. On the fifth day the servicemen brought Mr D.M. into the same room; on the sixth day they took the caps off their eyes. An officer with colonel’s rank with visible insignia on his uniform told them that they had been arrested by mistake, apologised and let the brothers go. When he left the building Mr V.M. realised that it was the military commander’s office of Urus-Martan District. 14.  On the night of 12 February 2001 unidentified persons wearing camouflage uniforms abducted Salman Abdulazizov from his house at 1 Vygonnaya Street, Goyty village, and took him away. 15.  Immediately after her husband’s abduction, despite the curfew, the applicant, with several other women, went to the military commander’s office in Goyty. The applicant saw in the courtyard of the Goyty military commander’s office the same red Niva with no rear window that she had seen earlier near her house. 16.  In the morning of 12 February 2001 the applicant went to the Urus-Martan District military commander’s office. During the lunch hour she heard her husband singing a prayer. The voice was coming from the second floor of the building of the Urus-Martan District military commander’s office. On the same day the applicant informed several State agencies that her husband was being kept in that building. 17.  At some point the Urus-Martan District military commander told the applicant in a private conversation that her husband had been arrested by servicemen under his command but refused to confirm it officially. According to the applicant, the head of the Chechen Department of the Federal Security Service also said that Salman Abdulazizov had been kept at the military commander’s office of the Urus-Martan District. Later the applicant was told that her husband had been sent to the town of Mozdok. 18.  On 12 and 21 February 2001 the applicant complained in writing to the Urus-Martan District military commander, the head of the local administration and the Urus-Martan District prosecutor’s office (“the district prosecutor’s office”) about her husband’s abduction and requested assistance in establishing his whereabouts. 19.  On 1 March 2001 the district prosecutor’s office informed the applicant that her letter of 21 February 2001 had been forwarded to the Urus-Martan District military commander’s office for examination on the merits. 20.  On 3 June 2001 the district prosecutor’s office instituted an investigation into Salman Abdulazizov’s kidnapping under Article 126 § 1 of the Russian Criminal Code (“kidnapping”). The case file was assigned the number 25306. 21.  On an unspecified date the applicant was granted victim status. 22.  On 16 April 2001 the applicant was questioned as a victim. 23.  On 18 July 2001 the applicant requested the military prosecutor’s office of military unit no. 20102 (“the unit prosecutor’s office”) to establish her husband’s whereabouts and to identify and punish his kidnappers. 24.  On 29 April 2001 the Urus-Martan department of the interior (“ROVD”) sent the materials of the inquiry into the arrest of Salman Abdulazizov by servicemen to the unit prosecutor’s office. 25.  On 20 July 2001 the applicant requested the district prosecutor’s office to question as witnesses the five villagers who had been kept at the military commander’s office of the Urus-Martan District, to inform her which number had been assigned to the criminal case related to her husband’s kidnapping and to update her on progress in the investigation. 26.  On 27 August 2001 the investigation in case no. 25306 was suspended for failure to identify those responsible. 27.  On 2 November 2001 the applicant requested the district prosecutor’s office to question as witnesses the five villagers who had been kept at the military commander’s office of the Urus-Martan District and to take other investigative measures. It appears that the request remained unanswered. 28.  On 26 March 2002 the district prosecutor’s office informed the applicant that they had resumed the investigation in case no. 25306. They commented that they intended to transfer the case file to the military prosecutor’s office. 29.  On 30 September 2002 the applicant requested the district prosecutor’s office to inform her of progress in the investigation. 30.  On 12 May 2003 the military prosecutor’s office of the United Group Alignment (“the UGA prosecutor’s office”) forwarded the applicant’s complaint to the unit prosecutor’s office. 31.  On 16 May 2003 the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office forwarded the applicant’s complaint to the UGA prosecutor’s office. 32.  On 4 June 2003 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic forwarded the applicant’s complaint to the district prosecutor’s office. 33.  On 15 June 2003 the applicant was questioned again. 34.  On 17 June 2003 the unit prosecutor’s office informed the applicant that an inquiry had established no traces of military personnel’s implication in Salman Abdulazizov’s kidnapping and commented that the investigation into it had been opened by the district prosecutor’s office. 35.  On 11 July 2003 the UGA prosecutor’s office forwarded the applicant’s complaint to the unit prosecutor’s office. 36.  In autumn 2007 the investigation file was forwarded to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor’s Office for the Chechen Republic. 37.  On 1 April 2001 the district prosecutor’s office received a complaint by several Goyty villagers concerning Salman Abdulazizov’s arrest by officers of the Ministry of the Interior. As an inquiry conducted had not established any implication of law enforcement agencies in Salman Abdulazizov’s disappearance, on an unspecified date the district prosecutor’s office instituted an investigation in case no. 25306 under Article 126 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (aggravated kidnapping). 38.  The applicant was granted victim status and questioned. She stated that on the night of 12 February 2001 some fifty servicemen had entered her courtyard and fifteen of them had entered the house. The servicemen had been masked; two of them had been wearing grey uniforms and the other had been wearing camouflage uniforms. The servicemen had forcibly taken Salman Abdulazizov away and ordered the applicant not to leave the house. The applicant had seen a white UAZ-452 vehicle, a red Niva without a rear window and an Ural vehicle. Two APCs had been parked on the adjacent street. Later the applicant had learned that Mr E., Mr I., Mr V. and two brothers, Mr D.M. and Mr V.M., had also been arrested together with her husband, but they all had returned home within the next four days. The applicant had heard her husband’s voice while he had been praying inside the Urus-Martan military commander’s office. Salman Abdulazizov had lost his right leg as a result of a bombardment and walked with crutches. He had not participated in any illegal armed groups. 39.  On 21 September 2001 the district prosecutor’s office granted the applicant’s request to be admitted to the criminal proceedings as a civil plaintiff. 40.  On an unspecified date Ms N., the applicant’s neighbour, was questioned and stated that at about 1 a.m. on 12 February 2001 she had heard the applicant screaming. Ms N. had stepped outside her house and observed through a hole in the fence a group of servicemen forcing Salman Abdulazizov into a Ural vehicle. The servicemen had also thrown his crutches into the Ural and driven away. On the following day she and other villagers had gone to the police unit from Saint-Petersburg, which had been on mission in Goyty. The commander of the unit, whose name was Yura, had told them that his subordinates had not been involved in Salman Abdulazizov’s arrest. On 19 or 20 February 2001 Ms N. and other women had gone to Urus-Martan and heard Salman Abdulazizov’s voice coming from the second floor of the building of the Urus-Martan military commander’s office. She had recognised the voice because Salman Abdulazizov had always recited prayers to the villagers during religious holidays. He had not participated in illegal armed groups. 41.  The investigators also questioned Ms Z., Ms A. and Ms E., who made statements similar to that by Ms N. 42.  On an unspecified date Mr D.M. was questioned and stated that on the night of 12 February 2001 he had been at home when ten masked men wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with machine guns had entered his house. The men had checked his identity papers, taken him and his brother Mr V.M. outside and placed them in the Ural vehicle. There had also been two UAZ vehicles parked nearby. Inside the Ural the armed men had blindfolded Mr D.M. and his brother with adhesive tape. When the Ural had stopped, the two brothers had been taken to an unknown place; they had gone up some stairs to get inside. They had been asked whether there were any insurgents in Goyty. For four days Mr D.M. and Mr V.M. had been kept locked in the same room and then released. Mr D.M. had not seen any other detainees in that room except for his brother. 43.  On unspecified dates Mr I. and Mr E. were also questioned. They denied that they had seen Salman Abdulazizov after their abduction or heard his voice. 44.  On 5 March 2008 the investigators questioned Mr V. He stated that at about 1 a.m. on 12 February 2001 unidentified armed persons had entered his house, taken him outside and put into a Ural vehicle. Mr V. could not see if there were other persons inside the Ural. They travelled for some forty minutes. Then Mr V. was kept in a building for two days and then released. 45.  Mr E. was also questioned and made a statement analogous to that by Mr V. 46.  The investigation in case no. 25306 was ongoing. 47.  Despite specific requests by the Court the Government did not disclose any documents of the investigation file in case no. 25306. 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. 48.  On 28 April 2003 the applicant lodged a complaint with the Urus-Martan Town Court of the Chechen Republic (“the town court”) that the district prosecutor’s office was taking no action in the investigation into her husband’s kidnapping. 49.  On 29 March 2004 the town court observed that the district prosecutor’s office had failed to examine the applicant’s request of 2 November 2001 properly, and declared that omission unlawful. The remainder of the complaint was dismissed for the reason that the alleged implication of military personnel in the kidnapping had not been proven. 50.  On 3 August 2004 the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic dismissed an appeal by the applicant, finding that military servicemen had not been involved in the kidnapping and that the district prosecutor’s office had taken ample investigative measures to solve the crime.