In the near future, Chechen human rights activists will advance their version of Estemirova's murder

Michael Ezhiev, leader of the NGO named "Human Rights Centre of the Chechen Republic", is shocked by the murder of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Chechnya. According to Mr Ezhiev, now members of Chechen NGOs are discussing, who could Estemirova intervene with.

Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped today at about 8:30 a.m. Moscow time in the city of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Later today, her body was found near Gazi-Yurt village in Ingushetia.

"We're discussing now, who could commit this villainous murder. Raising hand on a woman is a terrible sin in the Caucasus," said Michael Ezhiev and added that in the near future human rights activists will put forward their version of the murder.

Yesterday, in her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent Natalia Estemirova said about her plans to meet relatives of the Chechen citizens executed by power agencies and promised to present her story today.

On the eve of the murder, on July 14, Natalia Estemirova made an attempt, together with Svetlana Gannushkina, Chair of the Committee for Civil Assistance, to meet Maskhud Abdullaev, son of the Chechen field commander Supyan Abdullaev, who had been deported from Egypt.

In the evening, at about 9 p.m., Natalia herself made a call to the "Caucasian Knot" office and said that together with Ms Gannushkina they visited the Chechen Prosecutor's Office, Investigatory Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), trying to get a permit to meet the missing Maskhud Abdullaev.

According to Tatiana Lokshina, an employee of the Human Rights Watch, Estemirova was the main source of primary information for international organizations.

As reported by the press service of the Kremlin, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev has expressed his indignation with Estemirova's murder and ordered Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigatory Committee of the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO), to take investigation of the case under his personal control.

"Unfortunately it's obvious that this intentional murder can have to do with Natalia Estemirova's human rights activities. Still tougher should the punishment to criminals be," Radio Liberty quotes Natalia Timakova, press secretary of Russian President.

Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the Movement "For Human Rights", has treated Estemirova's murder as "monstrous". He said in his interview to the "Echo Moskvy" Radio that such crimes evidence that the situation in Northern Caucasus is far from what Russian authorities try to depict.

Alexander Cherkasov, a member of the Board of the Society "Memorial", is also sure that Natalia Estemirova's murder is related to her professional work. "Natalia was engaged in war crimes and torture and in those cases, which never cause sympathy of the authorities," he told the "Infox.ru" Agency.

The member of the "Memorial" has added that in her last days Estemirova was dealing with the case of public execution in the village of Akhim-Chubar-Zoi: "Earlier, public executions were held in the republic only under Johar Dudaev. Officials strongly disliked her involvement in this case."

"We suspect that the crime will not be investigated properly. A series of facts say in this favour. Even the Leninskiy RUVD (District Interior Department), where we submitted our application, tonight has rejected the existence of the document. And this is in spite of the fact that we talked to bureaucrats at all levels," Mr Cherkasov has summed up.