SOCIETY

The investigation into the murder of Natalya Estemirova will continue until November.

Supporters of the slain human rights activist are still unconvinced that official case will yield results and suggest it could be a “political put-up job”.

But they hope that it could mean the sole current suspect, scathingly dismissed in a report issued yesterday, might be joined by explorations of other leads.

“It [the prolongation] implies with all obviousness that this lead is not final,” Svetlana Gannushkina, head of a human rights committee Grazhdanskoye Sodeistivie, told RIA Novosti.

Investigators press on

The investigators, however, don’t seem to be uncertain about the outcome.

An “objective confirmation” of Alakhzur Bashayev’s involvement in the murder with other members of Islam Uspakhadzhiyev’s gang has been found by inverstigators.

Suggestions that Bashayev  was not involved are nothing but “personal opinions of people without sufficient competence, who have no information and access to all materials of the case,” Investigative Committee official statement read.

Earlier, Estimirova’s sister Svetlana claimed the police had been systematically refusing to provide some of the materials, violating her right to take part in the investigation

Revenge motive

Police believe that Estimirova who worked for human rights watchdog Memorial in Chechnya, was kidnapped near her flat in Grozny and shot dead because of revenge and to discredit the Chechen authorities.

Estimirova published a report where claimed that Bashayev recruited new members for the gang and attacked a family of a Moscow businessman, but activists suspect another investigation she published one week before her body was found in neighbouring Ingushetia cost her life.

An investigation into a public execution committed by Chechen ‘siloviki’ in a village of Akhkinchu-Borzoi published could be the reason for the crime, which investigators haven’t really checked, Estemirova’s colleagues say.

More evidence

Oleg Orlov, head of Memorial, which co-published yesterday’s report, said they are going to apply for evidence the group has collected to be added to the case now that the deadline has been put back.

“The fact that the Investigative Committee is digging in and is not willing to move from its only lead, in my opinion, could suggest that there is a political put-up job,” Orlov said.

Earlier, the human rights advocate said that Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen republic, could be involed in Estemirova’s murder, but court found him not guilty in a slander case launched by the Chechen leader.