Kadyrov has reportedly vowed to personally oversee the investigation into Estemirova's killing [File: EPA]

Natalia Estemirova's body was found on Wednesday near the city of Nazran in Ingushetia, the region neighbouring Chechnya, just hours after she was seized from her home in Grozny, the Chechen capital.

"I know, I am sure of it, who is guilty for the murder of Natalya ... His name is Ramzan Kadyrov," Oleg Orlov, the chairman of Memorial, said in a statement posted on the group's website late on Wednesday.

"Ramzan already threatened Natalya, insulted her, considered her a personal enemy.

"We do not know if he gave the order himself or his close associates did so to please their boss."

Memorial and Human Rights Watch (HRW) had earlier this month issued a report accusing Chechen security forces of punishing families of alleged fighters by burning down their homes.

'No mercy'

Friederike Behr, from Amnesty International and who worked with Estemirova, said the activist "never shied away from doing what she wanted to do" despite knowing she was at risk.

"She leaves a huge gap. Of course there are many more creative people but someone as exceptional as Natalia, ... who never showed any fear to other people."

"Her murder can send a very strong signal to other people who might have wanted to follow her path but might be now scared away," Behr said.

"I'm afraid this was probably one of the reasons she was killed to not only to stop her who was very effective ... but to scare off other people."

The RIA Novosti news agency reported that Kadyrov had personally pledged to oversee the investigation into Estemirova's murder.

"Those who raised their hand against her have no right to call themselves human and deserve no mercy," he was quoted as saying.

After Russia ended a 10-year "counter-terrorism" operation in Chechnya earlier this year, it handed security responsibilities to Kadyrov.

He has also recently been given licence to target rebel fighters in neighbouring regions.

Russia's Gazeta newspaper, reported on Thursday that Chechen authorities had complained about Estemirova's work.

"By coincidence, just before the murder, Chechnya's rights ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiyev called on Memorial's Grozny office chief to complain about Estemirova, saying she refuses to see positive changes and insists on bringing up dirt," it said.

In 2007, Estemirova was awarded the Anna Politkovskaya prize - named after the murdered Russian journalist - by the Nobel Women's Initiative, a group established by female Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

HRW's Tatyana Lokshina, who worked with Estemirova in Chechnya, said  that she believes victims of abuse are now voiceless without her.

"This is a devastating personal loss ... she was instrumental to all of us - researchers, journalists, human rights defenders - everyone who would come to Chechnya on the job would talk to Natalia," she said.

"Natalia was providing invaluable information from the region, she was that one person whom the victims trusted fully ... without Natalia, they have no one to give them a voice. And this is something the Chechen government knew quite well."

Bullet wounds

Estemirova, a 50-year-old single mother, was found in woods shortly after a number of men bundled her into a white vehicle outside her home, human rights activists said.

Madina Khadziyeva, a spokeswoman at the Ingush interior ministry, said that Estemirova had been shot dead.

"The body had two wounds to the head, it was clear she had been murdered in the morning," she said.

The United States condemned the murder and urged Russia to hunt down those responsible.

"We call upon the Russian government to bring to justice those responsible for this outrageous crime and demonstrate that lawlessness and impunity will not be tolerated," Mike Hammer, the White House National Security Council spokesman, said.

A spokesman for Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, said that he was "outraged" by the killing and ordered an investigation.

Chechnya is a mainly Muslim region riven by two separatist wars since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Chechnya and other parts of the Russian Caucasus remain the site of a deadly insurgency against the pro-Kremlin local authorities, who have been accused of human rights abuses.

Recommend this article...

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: