I am writing to urge you to do everything in your power to ensure a comprehensive, independent, and transparent investigation into the murder of Natalia Estemirova, including taking personal responsibility for overseeing the General Prosecutor’s Office conduct of an investigation with a view to ensuring justice for this heinous crime.
As you know, Natalia Estemirova, a leading human rights defender in Chechnya, was abducted near her home in Grozny on the morning of July 15, 2009, and carried off in a car as people on a nearby balcony heard her call out that she was being kidnapped. She was found shot dead later that day in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia.
Estemirova was at the forefront of efforts to investigate human rights violations and work for accountability in Chechnya for more than 10 years. Estemirova’s death is the latest in a series of attacks and murders of lawyers and others seeking justice and accountability for human rights violations, particularly in Chechnya. In January, Umar Israilov, a Chechen who alleged he had been tortured by Chechen President Kadyrov, was shot and killed in broad daylight in Vienna, where he was living in exile. Less than a week later, Stanislav Markelov, a prominent human rights lawyer who represented numerous victims of human rights abuses in Chechnya, was shot dead on the street after leaving a Moscow news conference. Anastasiya Baburova, a journalist who was with him, was also killed. No arrests have been made in either case.
You have expressed outrage and appointed a special investigation. This is welcome. In order to ensure the credibility of the investigation, we urge you to ensure that the investigation is conducted by federal investigators and not by local law enforcement, and to remain personally seized of its progress. We further urge you to ensure that the international community is kept informed about the progress of the investigation, and to invite international, independent experts to participate in it. As a first step in this regard, and in order to demonstrate your commitment to transparency and accountability, we urge you to secure immediate access to Russia, including to the North Caucasus, for international monitors who have long sought such access. These include the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s rapporteur for legal remedies for human rights violations in the North Caucasus, and the UN Special Rapporteur's on torture, on extrajudicial executions, and on human rights defenders.
