A man mourns the loss of the human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, who was killed in 2009
Photo: A2800 epa Yelena Ignatieva / dpa
Natalia Estemirova headed the human rights organization »Memorial« in Chechnya and denounced kidnappings and serious crimes in the Caucasian republic with her work.
Twelve years ago, on July 15, 2009, she was kidnapped in front of the door of her home in the Chechen capital Grozny.
A few hours later, the 50-year-old was found shot dead in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia.
To date, no one has been tried for the murder.
Russian investigators blame the Islamist Alkhasur Baschajew for the murder of Estemirova, but he has not yet been arrested.
Now the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Russia for inadequate investigations.
The court ruled that the investigations did not meet the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights.
It ordered a compensation payment of 20,000 euros to the victim's sister.
ECHR: No evidence of state involvement
Estemirova's colleagues doubted that the Islamist Bashayev committed the murder.
Rather, they suspected the Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov behind the crime.
Estemirowa's sister Svetlana had therefore initiated proceedings before the ECHR in 2011.
In its judgment, the ECHR has now come to the conclusion that there is no evidence of state involvement in Estemirova's murder.
However, Moscow failed to properly investigate the crime.
Among other things, "contradictions in the testimony" had never been cleared up, the court ruled.
It also accused the Russian government of having withheld "a large part of the documents" from the investigation file.
Estemirova's daughter Lana spoke of an "extremely disappointing verdict" in an initial reaction.
However, she welcomed the fact that the court had criticized the Russian investigation as inadequate.
The human rights organization »Memorial« also regretted that the ECHR »did not recognize the responsibility of the authorities for the death of Natalia Estemirova«.
lau / AFP
