Chechen leader: Slain activist ‘had no conscience’

MOSCOW —The Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya said in a radio interview that a human rights activist whose bullet-ridden body was found in a neighboring province last month “never had any honor, dignity or conscience.”

Natalya Estemirova had been a staunch critic of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and led the Chechen branch of Memorial human rights group. Her body was found July 15 on a roadside in Ingushetia hours after she was kidnapped in the Chechen capital.

Memorial’s top activist, Oleg Orlov, accused Kadyrov of involvement in the slaying.

But Kadyrov reportedly reiterated his denial of having any involvement in Estemirova’s death, according to the transcript of an interview with Radio Svoboda posted late Saturday on the station’s Web site.

“She never had any honor, dignity or conscience, and all the same I appointed her the head of the (Grozny Human Rights) Council,” Kadyrov was quoted as saying.

“Why should Kadyrov kill a woman whom nobody needs?” Kadyrov reportedly said, referring to himself in the third person.

He was quoted as saying Estemirova “peddled all kinds of rubbish” in her investigations of torture, corruption, killings and disappearances that implicated official involvement.

The station did not say when the interview took place.

Memorial executive committee member Alexander Cherkasov expressed dismay at Kadyrov’s criticism of the brutally slain activist.

“In this speech Kadyrov again has demonstrated his personal enmity not only toward Natalya Estemirova, but also toward other rights defenders who are simply doing their job,” Cherkasov told The Associated Press. He defended Estemirova’s reports on rights abuses, saying “everything was documentarily confirmed.”

Kadyrov and his security forces have led a violent crackdown on the insurgency that lingers from two separatist wars in Chechnya. In the radio transcript, Kadryov was quoted as saying his forces “destroyed hundreds, thousands” of “bandits.”

Critics have accused Kadyrov of using the counterterrorism drive to frighten local civilians with the threat of repercussions if anyone were to cross him.