Human rights defender Natalya Estemirova killed

Today, 15 July 2009, around 8:30 AM in Grozny, Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova, an employee of the Human Rights Centre 'Memorial', was abducted. Not far from her home, she was seized and forcibly put into a white VAZ-2107 car – she only managed to shout that she was being abducted. At 18:30, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor's Office announced that Natalya Estemirova had been found murdered in the territory of Ingushetia. On the body – gunshot wounds in the area of the head and chest...

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As reported by 'Interfax', documents in the name of Natalya Estemirova were discovered in the victim's personal belongings. The body was found on Wednesday 100 metres from the federal 'Caucasus' highway near the village of Gazi-Yurt in the Nazran district of Ingushetia. On the body – gunshot wounds in the area of the head and chest.

In 'Memorial', they did not receive confirmation of Natalya's death through their own channels, but believe that the tragic information is correct. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed indignation in connection with the murder of Estemirova and instructed the head of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor's Office, Alexander Bastrykin, to take control of the investigation of the case, the Kremlin press service reported. 'Unfortunately, it is obvious that this intentional murder may be linked to the human rights activities of Natalya Estemirova. The punishment for the criminals must be all the harsher,' said presidential press secretary Natalya Timakova.

Russian human rights defenders are convinced that the abduction in Chechnya of Human Rights Centre 'Memorial' employee Natalya Estemirova, who was found murdered today in Ingushetia, is linked to her work, stated the head of the Moscow bureau of Human Rights Watch, Tatyana Lokshina.

'We do not doubt for a second that the abduction is linked to her work,' said Tatyana Lokshina.

The human rights defender added that 'for the last couple of years, the republican authorities, including President Kadyrov himself, have expressed clear dissatisfaction with Estemirova's activities.'

'Against the backdrop of increased militant activity in the North Caucasus and in Chechnya itself, where everything seemed relatively calm only recently, so-called counter-terrorist measures have also intensified. I returned yesterday evening from Chechnya, where I had been working for a week together with Natalya. The cases that we documented are simply monstrous. Abductions of people, punitive burning of houses, a public execution in the Kurchaloyevsky district of the republic – Natalya dealt with all these cases,' the BBC quotes human rights defender Tatyana Lokshina.

Natalya Estemirova was one of the leading employees of the Human Rights Centre 'Memorial' in Chechnya, a member of the Commission on Conditions of Detention in Places of Deprivation of Liberty, visited pre-trial detention centres, and actively fought against the practice of torture; she conducted investigations into abductions and extrajudicial executions. The last of the high-profile cases about which she told the press concerns the murder of a Chechen girl by 'unknown security officials'.

From the entrance to the place of abduction, some woman was following Natalya – possibly a scout – reports the Human Rights Centre 'Memorial'.