BBC reports:
— “A prominent Russian human rights activist, Natalia Estemirova, has been found dead in the North Caucasus.”
— “She was bundled into a van and abducted as she left her home in Chechnya on Wednesday morning, a colleague said. Her body was found in Ingushetia.”

BBC also reports:
— “Award-winning Russian human rights campaigner Natalia Estemirova, who has been found shot dead in the North Caucasus, documented hundreds of cases of abuse in Chechnya.”
— “Her work for the Russian human rights group Memorial latterly focused on alleged human rights violations by government-backed militias.”

New York Times reports:
— “In recent years, Ms. Estemirova had focused on kidnappings that she believed were carried out under the authority of the Chechen president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, who has enjoyed unwavering public support from the Kremlin.”
— “Her work met with threats and denunciations from Chechen authorities. In March of 2008, after Ms. Estemirova criticized a new law requiring women in Chechnya to wear head scarves, Mr. Kadyrov summoned her to a personal meeting and threatened her, an experience so frightening that she went abroad for several months, said Tatyana Kasatkina, deputy director of the Rissian human rights group Memorial, where Ms. Estemirova had worked since 1999. Friends tried to convince Ms. Estemirova to stay away, but she felt compelled to return.”

Free Internet Press reports:
— “Ms. Estemirova worked for years helping families uncover details about kidnapped relatives. She was the recipient of several international awards, and in 2007 was the first to win the Anna Politkovskaya Award, named for the Russian investigative journalist, who also worked to uncover abuses in Chechnya before she was shot to death in October 2006.”

— “Ms. Estemirova’s work often ran afoul of the Chechen government, led by the Kremlin-backed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, whom human rights groups have accused of personally torturing kidnap victims.”

— Reuters: Group blames Chechen leader for activist’s murder

— Global Post: “Did Chechnya’s leader just kill this woman?”

March 1, 2009 – Russia: Chechen President defends extremist “honor killings” – says women deserve to die
— “Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had ‘loose morals’ and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings. ‘If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed,’ Kadyrov told journalists in the capital of this Russian republic.”