Gannushkina: on the eve of her death Natalia Estemirova discussed extrajudicial executions with Chechen authorities

Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the public charitable organization for helping refugees and forced migrants "Civil Assistance" and the head of the network "Migration and Law" of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", who worked with the employee of the Chechen office of the HRC "Memorial" Natalia Estemirova on the last day of her life said that they discussed the issue of extrajudicial executions and punishments that take place in Chechnya with officials of power agencies of the republic.

According to her story, the point was the murder of Ramzan Albekov, who was shot dead in the eyes of witnesses for his alleged help to militants; while his relatives were ordered to say that Ramzan had died of a heart attack. "Natasha openly asserted, unlike the relatives, that it was an execution, not a heart attack. She named the unit engaged in that execution - it was the TMD - Territorial Militia Division," Ms Gannushkina said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Natalia also said about burnt down houses of militants' relatives: when one of brothers goes to the mountains, and the other remains, power agents burn down the houses of both brothers in the eyes of their small children.

"Natasha also said that the methods of fighting against militants in Chechnya become tougher. For example, that power agents force relatives to execute each other, not to let the blood feud get outside one clan. She said that militants' relatives are deprived of pensions," said Gannushkina and added that the parties in their conversation were Public Prosecutor of Chechnya Mikhail Savchin, deputy chair of the Investigatory Committee for Chechnya and deputy interior minister of Chechnya.

According to her story, the authorities were offered to cooperate with human rights activists in investigating these crimes; however, this idea was not unequivocally supported by power officials. "Natasha's next day was full of appointments to the last minute. She had an arrangement to meet the chairman of the ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Russian Prosecutor's Office) for Chechnya to discuss these issues," said Svetlana Gannushkina and added that after a series of meetings, on July 15 Natalia Estemirova should have left for Stavropol together with an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), where the database on missing people is kept.

The aim of the trip was to check the possibility of joint work and technical match of the database of human rights activists with MIA's databases.