Cherkasov: inspectors dealing with Estemirova's murder check possible complicity of Chechen power agents in the crime

The investigators engaged in the murder of the Chechen rights defender Natalia Estemirova check possible involvement of local power agents in the crime, Alexander Cherkasov, a board member of the Human Rights Society "Memorial", said at the press conference, "North Caucasus: Journalists and Rights Defenders in Danger", which was held on September 14 in the Independent Press Centre in Moscow.

Mr Cherkasov told the audience about other resonant crimes investigated in Northern Caucasus. According to his story, the novelty in one of them - the murder of the Chechen rights defender Natalia Estemirova - is that involvement in the crime of local power agents is checked.

"Estemirova's murder case was so carelessly cut out and sewn that threads stuck out from everywhere"

According to Alexander Cherkasov, as to the murder case of the activist of the HRC "Memorial" Natalia Estemirova, who was assassinated in July 2009, her colleagues hope for the objectivity of the engaged investigators and possible influence on the investigation by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

"The prosecutor of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) made another report that Natasha Estemirova's murder had been solved (according to Alexei Vasilkov, Deputy Head of the General Prosecutor's Office of the NCFD, investigators have a suspect who had been put on the search list, - note of the "Caucasian Knot"). Two months ago we presented our report on the independent investigation of the murder," said the rights defender.

He briefed the audience on the report prepared by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), "Novaya Gazeta" and HRC "Memorial" and stating that the investigation, which believed that Estemirova was killed by militants, was on a wrong track. Cherkasov said that human rights defenders and journalists worked together and found Anzor Bashaev, who is hiding in Europe - a brother of the main suspect - the militant Alkhazur Bashaev, who, according to the investigation, killed the journalist because she wrote that Bashaev was a militant and in order to discredit the Russian authorities.

"In accordance with European legislation, we took his samples for genetic study and compared them with those materials that are present in the criminal case. The latter are different, namely: those materials that are considered to belong to Alkhazur Bashaev; those that were extracted from the mass grave, where Alkhazur Bashaev had been allegedly buried; the subungual matter taken from Natasha - she resisted; and DNAs of three persons were detected in the matter. We also examined the sweat of the man who kept her in the car when they took her away," said Cherkasov.

He also reminded the facts from the above report: "We compared the DNA profiles of the killer's brother and of the killer, declared by the ICRF (Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation) as such, by using those methods that allow under the brother/brother comparison to make the identification. It turned out that he was not he. Neither the matter from the burial nor the comb with hair remnants and other things, considered to be Alkhazur Bashaev's genetic matter, were not confirmed, as well as all the other materials, recognized by inspectors as proofs of Alkhazur Bashaev's involvement."

In Mr Cherkasov's opinion, all the investigation proofs suggest that the investigation had sought - in the first few months after the murder up to December 2009 - to really inquire into the crime; however, already in January 2010, materials accompanied by the instruction "to be considered the only correct ones" were downloaded from the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the Federal Security Bureau (FSB) to the inspectors' group, which then started behaving accordingly with those "uniquely correct" documents.

He said that neither he nor the victims have access to criminal case files, but he treated the proofs as "fake" and gave some examples of how they were extracted. "Evidences are easy to get: plenty of inmates are in prisons, eager to testify that, for example, they were running in the forest and saw that very Bashaev alive after he had been declared dead. Let them show me the case files and say that this is not true!" said Cherkasov.

Still, as he said, there is something positive in the case: the version of involvement of Chechen power agents in the killing is studied. "From the very beginning we said that the case has to do with the activities of the Kurchaloi ROVD (District Interior Division). I very much hope that the investigators - and there's a serious inspectors' group of Igor Sobolev - will achieve something; maybe, perhaps, the mindset 'on the top' changes," the rights defender has emphasized.

He has recalled that on September 9 the "Memorial" submitted, together with representatives of Estemirova's relatives, a complaint to the ECtHR against the lack of progress in the investigation of the case. "We will seek to achieve something in Strasbourg," said Cherkasov.

"Zarema Sadulayeva's murder could have been solved in two days, if desired"

Alexander Cherkasov also told about the murder of Zarema Sadulayeva, the chair of the organization "Let's Save Generation", and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov, committed in August 2009. According to Alexander Cherkasov, the direct gunmen could have been caught in hot pursuit on "the day after the incident."

According to his story, one of the kidnappers had left in the office, from where Sadulayeva and Dzhabrailov were abducted, his cell phone number. "On the following day, when the detectives began the investigation, they called to the phone number. A man answered that 'he was sitting too high, and they wouldn't get him.' It took them several months to question the owner of that cell phone. It turned out that the man was an employee of the FSB. For several months inspectors could not get a sanction to interrogate him; and only reference to the fact that the case was under Ramzan Kadyrov's personal supervision made his interrogation possible," said Cherkasov.

Further, according to his version, it appeared that the man bought a SIM-card for his sister, who married and gave the card to her relative named Akbulatov - a militiaman at the Kurchaloi ROVD of Chechnya.

"By that moment, that is, by February 2010, the militiaman Akbulatov had been killed. They say it happened in the mountains, in armed clashes with militants. From a conversation with relatives of Sadulayeva and Dzhabrailov it became clear that the second man, who brought them out of the office, and who could have also been identified by his face, was a militiaman too, and was also killed by that time," said Cherkasov.

"As to three other persons, who also took away the kidnapped persons, were referred by the investigation as follows: 'Well, they were Turkish guest workers.' It meant that they were MIA employees sent from other regions of Russia, who were impossible to find. However, the witnesses of the kidnapping said that the 'Turks-guest workers' were speaking the Chechen language very well, and it is unlikely that it was their second language. Nevertheless, they are not searched. In short, the case could have been solved within a day or two, but now 'the ends are deep in water', at least some of them," said the rights defender.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this January Maryam Nalaeva, the head of the press service of the ICRF for Chechnya said that investigators had defined that the murder of Zarema Sadulayeva had nothing to do with her professional activities, while the criminal actions had been originally planned against Zarema's husband Alik Dzhabrailov. Currently, the criminal investigation is suspended, because the persons subject to attraction as defendants have not been established.

"Investigation of Umarpashaev's kidnapping is a unique case for Chechnya"

Alexander Cherkasov also told about the case of kidnapping in Chechnya of Islam Umarpashaev, which is investigated by Igor Sobolev, in cooperation with Russian rights defenders.

Mr Cherkasov said that Umarpashaev for two months was kept the location of the Chechen OMON (riot police), handcuffed to a heating radiator; they gave him food, took to wash, but did not shave and cut his hair. "Why? We can guess: typical for Chechnya - a man disappears; and then he is found killed in the forest, in some armed clash, unshaven, dressed in camouflage and with a submachine gun in hands. Well, a very reasonable practice, if they report, as Mr Medvedev said, in the count of dead bodies," said Cherkasov.

He added that after Umarpashaev's disappearance, a complaint filed in the Strasbourg Court (ECtHR), and the man was released. "He should have said that all this time he was in Makhachkala, and indulged in gay life; however, however, he said that he had been kept by Chechen OMON and refused to recall his complaint," said Cherkasov.

"The criminal case on Umarpashaev's application is being investigated, because, as I understand it, the investigator Igor Sobolev was not accompanied by the FSB. The OMON fighters involved are being identified; and one of them - Anzor Dishniev - wrote a complaint against Igor Kalyapin (head of the NGO named "Interregional Committee Against Torture", who presents Umarpashaev's interests - note of the "Caucasian Knot"): it turns out that the lawyer had offended him by politically incorrect pointing to the size of the agent's belly; now the incident is under a pre-investigation check," said Cherkasov.

He called the audience to follow the case, stating that it is unique: the person refuses to recall an application on the crime committed against him and insists on investigation.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" reported that this January, after a public campaign in support of Umarpashaev and personal intervention of Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the Russian General Prosecutor's Office transferred the investigation of the case to the Southern Federal District (SFD). According to activists of international human rights organizations, it has immediately ensured a tangible progress of the investigation: among other things, the victim was taken, along with investigators, to the site of the alleged crime and identified one of potential suspects.