Memorial: kidnapped Chechen activist found dead

MOSCOW — The head of a Chechen aid group and her husband have been found shot dead in the trunk of their car a day after being kidnapped, police and an official of the Russian human rights group Memorial said Tuesday.

Memorial’s Alexander Cherkasov told The Associated Press that the bodies of Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband were found in a suburb of the Chechen capital, Grozny. A Chechen Interior Ministry spokesman said the bodies had gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

The pair were taken from the office of Sadulayeva’s group, Save the Generation, on Monday.

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

Cherkasov said Sadulayeva’s group 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 in Chechnya has dwindled to occasional small clashes in recent years. But Kadyrov opponents say he has imposed a regime of fear and impunity.

Last month, Estemirova’s body was found on a roadside in a neighboring province hours after her abduction in Grozny. She had exposed alleged rights abuses by the government of the Kremlin-backed Kadyrov.

Memorial’s top activist, Oleg Orlov, accused Kadyrov of involvement in that slaying. Kadyrov angrily denied the allegations, but he denounced Estemirova as a person who “never had any honor, dignity or conscience,” in an interview with Radio Liberty.

The interview was posted late Saturday on the station’s Web site.

Activists have blamed Kadyrov’s forces for abductions, torture, killings and other abuses. They have also 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.”

Kadyrov and other Chechen officials blamed the killing of Sadulayeva and her husband on unspecified forces that want to destabilize the republic.

“This is a challenge to society, an attempt to intimidate the people of Chechnya,” Kadyrov said Tuesday according to Russian news agencies.

The Chechen human rights ombudsman, Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, said in a joint statement with other officials that “the criminals chose their victims on the basis of creating great negative resonance in Russian and world society.”

Pakhomenko said Save the Generation 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 the office to pick up the couple’s two cell phones and seize Sadulayeva’s car.

Saratova said she received her information from the group’s security guard, the only one to witness the abduction. The guard was taken under the protection of Chechnya’s human rights ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiev.

Saratova said that Sadulayeva’s husband, Alik Dzhabrailov, had served a prison term on charges of belonging to a separatist movement. They married several months ago after he was released from custody.