15 July 2009
Natalia Estemirova
Shooting
Courageous human rights defender and journalist Natalia Estemirova was abducted and murdered.
Estemirova, of Russian-Chechen descent, worked at the Grozny office of Memorial, Russia's best known rights organisation. Tenacious in her investigations into torture, killings and other abuses in Chechnya, Estemirova was awarded for her courage by the Swedish and European parliaments. Witnesses reported hearing Estemirova calling out that she was being kidnapped as she was forced into a van around 8.30 am as she left her home in Grozny. Her body was found some hours later in woodland in neighbouring Ingushetia. She had been shot in the head and chest. Aged 50, Natalia Estemirova leaves behind her 15-year old daughter.
