54. The Government argued that the complaint was unfounded. They referred to the fact that the investigation had obtained no evidence to the effect that this person was dead, or that representatives of the federal forces had been involved in his abduction or alleged killing. The Government also claimed that the investigation of the disappearance of the applicants' family member met the Convention requirement of effectiveness, as evidenced by the questioning of witnesses by the investigating authorities and requests sent by them to other State agencies.
55. The applicants maintained their complaint and contended that their family member had been detained by State servicemen and should be presumed dead in the absence of any reliable news of him for several years. They further argued that the investigation had not met the requirements of effectiveness and adequacy required by the Court's case-law on Article 2. The applicants noted that the investigation had been adjourned and reopened a number of times, thus delaying the taking of the most basic steps, and that they had not been properly informed of the most important investigative steps. They argued that the fact that the investigation had been pending for such a long period of time without producing any known results had been a further proof of its ineffectiveness. The applicants invited the Court to draw conclusions from the Government's unjustified failure to submit the documents from the case file to them or to the Court.