5.  The applicants were born in 1954, 1974 and 1979 respectively. They live in the village of Serzhen-Yurt, the Shali District, in the Chechen Republic. 6.  The first applicant is the mother of the third applicant, Ms Luisa Saydaliyeva and of Mr Vakha Khasanovich Saydaliyev, born in 1976. At the material time Vakha Saydaliyev lived with the second applicant and had three children with her. Vakha Saydaliyev was disabled: he had had a leg amputated as a result of a trauma. 7.  On 16 April 2002 the Saydaliyevs gathered their relatives and acquaintances in their house at 50 Sheripov Street, the village of Serzhen-Yurt, for the funeral of a family member. At some point Vakha Saydaliyev absented himself from home for a while and went to visit his neighbours. 8.  At about 1 p.m. two armoured personnel carriers (“APCs”) and three Ural vehicles arrived at the Sandaliyevs’ house; around fifty or sixty armed men who wore camouflage uniforms and spoke Russian without an accent got out of them. The applicants believed the men to be Russian military servicemen. 9.  The servicemen proceeded to the courtyard and blocked the gates to it. Some of them entered the house and searched it without producing any warrant. They examined the dead body prepared for the funeral and explained that they had been instructed to check everything. 10.  The servicemen shouted at the applicants and asked them where “their one-legged man” was. Then they lined all the men present against a wall and checked their identity papers. 11.  In the meantime Vakha Saydaliyev returned home and entered the courtyard. The servicemen told him that they would take him to the military commander’s office for questioning but did not produce any documents. Vakha Saydaliyev did not offer any resistance and got into the Ural vehicle. 12.  The applicants and Luisa Saydaliyeva begged the servicemen not to take Vakha Saydaliyev away. In reply, the servicemen shouted at the women; one of them hit Luisa Saydaliyeva with a machine gun butt. Then the vehicles drove away.
(b)  Information obtained by the applicants from third persons 13.  On 16 April 2002 armed men, allegedly Russian servicemen, detained the Saydaliyevs’ neighbour, Mr Kh. On 17 or 18 April 2002 he was released and returned home. Mr Kh. told the applicants that he had seen Vakha Saydaliyev in the premises of the military commander’s office in the village of Avtury, the Shali District, in the Chechen Republic. However, he refused to provide more information on his arrest and detention or to make an official statement. Later he left the village of Serzhen-Yurt. 14.  In spring 2004 two unknown men visited Vakha Saydaliyev’s relatives and told them that for a year they had been kept in a detention facility in Stavropol and had shared a cell with Vakha Saydaliyev. They had no further information on his fate. 15.  At about 2 p.m. on 16 April 2002 unidentified persons in camouflage uniforms armed with machine guns kidnapped Vakha Saydaliyev from the house at 50 Sharipov Street, the village of Serzhen-Yurt. 16.  Immediately after Vakha Saydaliyev’s abduction the first and second applicants asked the head of the local administration to help find their relative, but in vain. 17.  Starting from 16 April 2002 the first and second applicants tried to establish Vakha Saydaliyev’s whereabouts. They applied to various official bodies, such as prosecutors’ offices at different levels, the Russian President, the Speaker of the Russian State Duma, the Administration of the Chechen Republic, the head of the Federal Security Service (“the FSB”) and the military commander’s office of the Shali District of the Chechen Republic requesting to help them to find their relative. The applicants were assisted in their efforts by the SRJI. 18.  On 18 May 2002 the military prosecutor’s office of military unit no. 20116 (“the unit prosecutor’s office”) forwarded the first applicant’s complaint about her son’s abduction to the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic and noted that there was no “objective proof of guilt of the United Group Alignment military servicemen” in the crime. 19.  On 14 June 2002 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic forwarded the first applicant’s complaint about her son’s arrest by “unidentified persons” to the prosecutor’s office of the Shali District (“the district prosecutor’s office”). 20.  On 6 August 2002 the district prosecutor’s office instituted an investigation into the disappearance of Vakha Saydaliyev under Article 126 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (aggravated kidnapping). The case file was given the number 59186. 21.  On 23 September 2002 the district prosecutor’s office granted the first applicant victim status and notified her accordingly. 22.  On 8 October 2002 the district prosecutor’s office suspended the investigation in case no. 59186 for failure to identify the perpetrators and informed the first applicant accordingly. 23.  On 26 December 2002 the district prosecutor’s office informed the Administration of the Chechen Republic and the first applicant that the investigation into Vakha Saydaliyev’s kidnapping was pending and investigative measures were being taken to solve the crime. 24.  On 13 February 2003 the South Federal Circuit Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office forwarded the first applicant’s complaint to the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic. 25.  On 11 April 2003 the district prosecutor’s office issued a certificate confirming that the investigation in case no. 59186 instituted in relation to Vakha Saydaliyev’s kidnapping was pending before them and that investigative measures were being taken to establish his whereabouts. 26.  On 16 April 2003 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic forwarded the first applicant’s complaint that her son had been apprehended by “people in military uniforms who had introduced themselves as servicemen of the FSB” to the district prosecutor’s office and to the Department of the FSB for the Chechen Republic (“the FSB Department”). They requested that they be informed whether Vakha Saydaliyev had been apprehended by any law-enforcement agency and, if so, whether criminal proceedings against him had been initiated. 27.  On 24 April 2003 the Department of the Interior of Shali District (“the ROVD”) issued the first applicant with a certificate confirming that her son had “actually been taken away to an unknown destination on 16 April 2002 by military servicemen during the special operation [carried out] in the village of Serzhen-Yurt”. 28.  On 6 June 2003 the district prosecutor’s office informed the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic and the first applicant that, despite the suspension of the investigation in case no. 59186, investigative measures were being taken to find Vakha Saydaliyev and the perpetrators. 29.  On 19 June 2003 the Shali District Court of the Chechen Republic declared Vakha Saydaliyev missing at the second applicant’s request. 30.  On 28 October 2003 the first applicant requested the district prosecutor’s office to inform her of progress in the investigation and to grant her victim status. 31.  On 5 December 2003 the district prosecutor’s office informed the first applicant that the investigation in case no. 59186 had been suspended, that she had been admitted to the proceedings as a victim and that investigative measures were being taken to establish Vakha Saydaliyev’s whereabouts and to find the perpetrators. 32.  On 29 January 2004 the ROVD informed the first applicant that the investigation into her son’s kidnapping had been initiated on 6 August 2002 and that the search for him was under way. 33.  On 6 April 2004 the military prosecutor’s office of the United Group Alignment (“the UGA prosecutor’s office”) informed the first applicant that the unit prosecutor’s office had carried out an inquiry into her son’s kidnapping, which had established no evidence of the implication of military personnel in the crime, and advised her to send further queries to the district prosecutor’s office. 34.  On 6 May 2004 the first applicant complained about her son’s disappearance to the UGA prosecutor’s office. On 8 June 2004 the UGA prosecutor’s office replied that the investigation in case no. 59186 was pending before the district prosecutor’s office. 35.  On 1 July 2004 the district prosecutor’s office informed the first applicant that the investigation into Vakha Saydaliyev’s kidnapping had been resumed. 36.  On 1 August 2004 the district prosecutor’s office informed the first applicant that the investigation had again been suspended but noted that investigative measures were being taken to find Vakha Saydaliyev. 37.  On 2 August 2004 the district prosecutor’s office issued the first applicant with a certificate confirming that the investigation into Vakha Saydaliyev’s kidnapping was pending and that his whereabouts were unknown. 38.  On 21 August 2004 the UGA prosecutor’s office forwarded the first applicant’s letter to the unit prosecutor’s office and ordered an inquiry into the matters complained of. 39.  On 25 December 2004 the UGA prosecutor’s office informed the first applicant that an inquiry into her son’s disappearance had established that servicemen of the law-enforcement agencies under their jurisdiction had not been implicated in the crime. 40.  On 17 February 2005 the first applicant complained about her son’s disappearance to the military commander’s office of the Shali District (“the military commander’s office”). On the same date the military commander’s office replied that they had requested information on Vakha Saydaliyev’s whereabouts from various official bodies. 41.  On 10 March 2005 the unit prosecutor’s office informed the first applicant that on 16 April 2002 the military personnel had not carried any special operations in the village of Serzhen-Yurt and had not apprehended any of its inhabitants. 42.  On 12 March 2005 the military commander’s office informed the first applicant that an operational and search case under the number 71026 had been initiated in respect of Vakha Saydaliyev’s disappearance and was pending before the ROVD. 43.  On 19 May 2005 the SRJI requested from the district prosecutor’s office information on progress in the investigation in case no. 59186. On 6 June 2005 the district prosecutor’s office replied that the case was pending before them and advised the SRJI to send further queries to the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic. 44.  On 7 June 2005 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic forwarded the first applicant’s complaint to the district prosecutor’s office and ordered that the investigation in case no. 59186 be pursued actively. 45.  On 23 September 2005 the SRJI complained to the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic that they had been denied access to the investigation file in case no. 59186. They also requested to resume the investigation if it had been suspended. 46.  On 11 October 2005 the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic informed the SRJI that, although Vakha Saydaliyev’s kidnappers had not yet been identified, investigative measures were being taken to solve the crime. They also noted that the first applicant could receive copies of decisions on institution and suspension of the proceedings from the district prosecutor’s office. 47.  On 19 September 2007 the Shali Inter-District Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor’s Office informed the second applicant that the investigation in case no. 59186 had been resumed on 20 August 2007 and that investigative measures were being taken to solve the crime. 48.  On 1 October 2007 the Ministry of the Interior of the Chechen Republic informed the first applicant that the investigation into her son’s kidnapping was pending before the district prosecutor’s office and that the ROVD were taking all requisite measures to find Vakha Saydaliyev and the perpetrators. 49.  On 6 August 2002 the district prosecutor’s office at the first applicant’s request instituted an investigation of Vakha Saydaliyev’s abduction under Article 126 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (aggravated kidnapping). The case file was assigned the number 59186. 50.  On an unspecified date the applicants’ house was inspected. The inspection of the crime scene gave no results. No items were found or seized. 51.  On 23 September 2002 the first applicant was granted victim status and questioned. She stated that at about 12 noon on 16 April 2004 Vakha Saydaliyev had been in the courtyard of his home. An Ural vehicle carrying around twenty men wearing camouflage uniforms and masks and armed with machine guns had driven inside the courtyard. The armed men had said that Vakha Saydaliyev had been filmed on video at the moment of kidnapping by a military commander of the Vedeno District. Then they had taken her son away. The first applicant alleged that Vakha Saydaliyev could have been kept at the Khankala military base. Her son had not been involved in illegal armed groups. 52.  On 6 October 2002 the investigation in case no. 59186 was suspended for failure to identify those responsible and the first applicant was informed accordingly. 53.  On 3 April 2003 Mr Ch., a head of the local administration of the village of Serzhen-Yurt, issued the applicants with a certificate confirming that Vakha Saydaliyev “had been detained and taken away by men wearing camouflage uniforms and masks”. 54.  On 25 June 2004 the investigation was resumed. 55.  On 16 July 2004 three persons, apparently villagers of Serzhen-Yurt, were questioned as witnesses. They made statements identical to the first applicant’s deposition of 23 September 2002. 56.  On 1 August 2004 the investigation was again suspended. 57.  On 1 August 2007 the investigation was resumed owing to the need to take additional investigative steps. 58.  The investigators requested information concerning special operations carried out on the date of the kidnapping from the military commander’s office of the Shali District, the ROVD and the FSB Department. According to the replies received, no special operations had been carried out in the village of Serzhen-Yurt on that day and Vakha Saydaliyev had not been arrested or placed in a temporary detention facility. 59.  The investigators also sent requests to all prosecutors’ offices and departments of the interior in the Chechen Republic, which brought no results. Vakha Saydaliyev’s body was not found among unidentified corpses. 60.  On unspecified dates after the resumption of the investigation on 1 August 2007 Mr Kh., the applicants’ neighbour, Mr S., the ROVD officer, and Mr Ch., the former head of the local administration, were questioned. 61.  Mr Kh. stated that on 17 April 2002 he had been abducted by unknown persons and taken to a building on the outskirts of the village of Avtury. There he had been asked whether there had been any insurgents in the village of Serzhen-Yurt. A day later he had been released. He had not seen Vakha Saydaliyev in that building. 62.  Mr Ch. and Mr S. stated that they had issued the certificates dated 3 and 24 April 2003 respectively at the first applicant’s request and the contents of those certificates had been based on the applicants’ account of the events given to the investigators. 63.  It follows from the Government’s additional observations of 21 January 2008 that at some point Leyla [Luisa] Saydaliyeva was questioned. She stated that on 16 April 2002 one of the armed men had hit her hands twice with a machine gun butt while she had been trying to prevent him from moving. She had not sought medical assistance because no significant injuries had been inflicted on her. 64.  The investigation, which so far failed to identify the perpetrators, was ongoing. The implication of any law-enforcement agencies in the crime had not been established. The two men who had allegedly been detained with Vakha Saydaliyev in Stavropol were not identified. The applicants had been duly informed of all decisions taken during the investigation. 65.  Despite specific requests by the Court the Government did not disclose most of the contents of criminal case no. 59186, providing only copies of the record of the first applicant’s interview of 23 September 2002 and of several notifications to the first applicant. Relying on the 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 the witnesses or other participants in the criminal proceedings.