Posted on August 11, 2009 - by Venik

Bodies of Zarema Sadulayeva and husband found car boot in Chechnya

Kidnap and slaying of Sadulayeva and Umar Dzhabrailov in Grozny follows that of another rights activist Natalya Estemirova

The head of a Chechen aid group and her husband were found dead in the trunk of their car a day after being kidnapped, police and an official of the Russian human rights group Memorial said today.

Memorial’s Alexander Cherkasov said the bodies of Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Umar Dzhabrailov, were found in a suburb of the Chechen capital, Grozny. A spokesman for the Chechen interior ministry said the bodies were found in the car’s boot with gunshot wounds in the head and chest.

The abductions followed last month’s kidnapping and killing of another prominent rights activist, Natalya Estemirova. Rights groups blame the forces of the Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, for abductions, killings and torture.

Cherkasov said Sadulayeva’s group, Save the Generation, was helping children in Chechnya, a region that has been devastated by two separatist wars over the last 15 years.

Fighting between Russian forces and separatist rebels has dwindled to occasional small clashes in recent years. But Kadyrov opponents say he has imposed a regime of fear and impunity.

Estemirova, whose body was found on a roadside in a neighbouring province hours after her abduction in Grozny. Estemirova had exposed alleged rights abuses by the government of the Kremlin-backed Kadyrov.

Memorial’s activist Oleg Orlov, has accused Kadyrov of involvement in the slaying. The Chechen president angrily denied the allegations, but he denounced Estemirova as a person who “never had any honour, dignity or conscience”, in an interview with Radio Svoboda, which was posted on the station’s website late on Saturday.

Activists have complained that Moscow, by backing Kadyrov, has created a climate of impunity that encourages unchecked brutality.

“The number of abductions in Chechnya has risen dramatically this year,” said Varya Pakhomenko of the Demos rights group. “The situation has become really catastrophic.”

Pakhomenko said Sadulayeva’s aid group focused on children who had been injured in war.

In 2005, one of the group’s workers, Murad Muradov, was abducted by security forces and freed two weeks later after a public outcry, Pakhomenko said.

Kheda Saratova, a Grozny-based rights activist, said three of the abductors were clad in military fatigues and two others were wearing civilian clothes. After taking Sadulayeva and her husband away, they returned to their office to pick up her cell phone and seize Sadulayeva’s car.

Saratova said that Sadulayeva’s husband had served a prison term on charges of taking part in separatist movement. They got married several months ago after he was released from custody.

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