Two years ago today, on 15 July 2009, Natalia Estemirova was abducted and murdered in Chechnya. For us this is a day to remember a dear friend and a colleague, and to send our condolences to her family.

But it is also a day to call for justice for her murder. Two years on, the investigation into her murder has been marred by allegations that the Russian authorities are not investigating all the leads which could help to establish the identity of her killer and those who stand behind him.
 
The Russian authorities claim she was killed by an armed Chechen fighter. We are not convinced that the authorities have done everything necessary to establish the truth about Natalia's murder. Her colleagues from the Human Rights Centre Memorial and from the newspaper Novaya Gazeta,( for which Natalia wrote, after her friend, Anna Politkovskaya, was murdered,) have conducted their own investigation and have found very little indication that the person named as Natalia's killer has anything to do with the crime.

On 14 July 2011, the Memorial Human Rights Center, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and Novaya Gazeta published a report on shortcomings in the government’s investigation. The full text of the report is located on the website of HRC “Memorial”:
 
http://www.memo.ru/2011/07/14/1407111.pdf (pdf),
http://www.memo.ru/2011/07/14/1407111.doc (doc)(in Russian).

Natalia Estemirova fought against injustice and exposed the truth about attrocities in Chechnya. For this she paid with her life.

Natalia Estemirova was the first recipient of the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award in 2007.

To honour our friend and colleague, we continue to call for justice for Natalia and for those who killed her and those who ordered her killing to be brought to justice. We will continue to re-print our open letter from 15 July 2009, the day Natasha was abducted and killed, until justice is done.
 
Join in support and add your voice for justice by signing the petition and adding a comment on RAW in WAR’s Facebook page.

SIGN THE RAW IN WAR PETITION HERE

In addition, see the video

RAW in WAR

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