Russia slander trial witness: Slain activist feared for safety after talk with Chechen leader

Russian activist in court over Chechen lawsuit

MOSCOW — A Russian rights activist slain in July had feared for her safety after talking with Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader, a rights worked testified Tuesday in the defamation trial of a colleague.

The case — brought by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov against Memorial rights group chairman Oleg Orlov — has again drawn attention to the killing of Natalya Estemirova, which led to an international outcry and has remained unsolved.

Giving testimony Tuesday, Memorial worker Alexander Cherkasov said Estemirova had described a March 2008 conversation with Kadyrov as a threat for her safety.

“Kadyrov yelled at her and called her names,” Cherkasov told a Moscow court. He recalled that Estemirova said Kadyrov was angry that she had criticized his demand that women in Chechnya wear Islamic headscarves in public in the mostly Muslim region.

“She perceived the conversation as a threat for her safety,” prompting her to leave Russia for some time and arrange for her teenage daughter to leave Chechnya, Cherkasov said.

Estemirova led Memorial’s branch in Chechnya until she was abducted and killed on July 15 outside her home in the capital, Grozny. Her bullet-riddled body was found by a roadside. Her death followed a string of killings of Kadyrov’s critics and political rivals.

Memorial’s chairman, Orlov, has blamed Kadyrov for Estemirova’s killing. He has never said he had evidence of Kadyrov’s involvement, but cited an atmosphere of lawlessness and impunity.

The Chechen leader, denying the allegation, filed the defamation charge against Orlov.

Kadyrov’s lawyer accused Memorial of slandering Kadyrov in order to win popularity. Andrei Krasnenkov summoned witnesses from Chechnya who denied that the president had threatened Estemirova.

Witness Aminat Malsagova, who described herself as a friend of Estemirova, said the slain activist had taken “a biased stance against positive actions by Kadyrov.”

Critics have accused Kadyrov and his security forces of massive abuses against civilians amid the fight against militants still active in Chechnya after two separatist wars over the last 15 years.

Estemirova had worked with investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who accused Kadyrov of atrocities and gross human rights violations and was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building in 2006.

Estemirova also helped Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer involved in Chechen rights abuse cases who was shot dead on a Moscow street in January, along with an opposition newspaper reporter.