Another Human Rights Murder in Russia

MOSCOW, Aug. 11, 2009 — -- For the second time in a month, a Chechen human rights activist has been abducted and slain, and this time her husband was also killed.

Fellow activists say Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Alik Dzhabrailov, were abducted by five gunmen from the Save the Generation office around 2 p.m. Monday. The charity works with children affected by the violence of war torn Chechnya.

Early today, the couple was found shot to death in the trunk of their car near a recreation center in suburban Grozny.

The double murder comes on the heels of the killing of Natalya Estemirova, a fellow rights activist in Chechnya, who was found dead in neighboring Ingushetia July 15. The three were all killed in a similar fashion with shots to the head and chest.

Estemirova's colleagues immediately accused Chechnya's Kremlin-backed president, Ramzan Kadyrov, of being behind her murder because she had blasted him for years for his brutal tactics in trying to quell a rebellion from Chechen separatists.

Kadyrov denied the accusations, and in a radio interview this past weekend he lashed out at the slain woman, saying Estemirova "Never had any honor, dignity or conscience." Referring to himself in the third person, he asked, "Why should Kadyrov kill a woman whom nobody needs?"

Reacting today to the murders of Sadulayeva and Dzhabrailov, Kadyrov took a different tact, telling reporters he is shocked by the couple's murder.

"It is a cynical, inhumane and demonstrative killing. This is the killing of people who devoted themselves to helping people with limited capabilities. I see this as a challenge to society, an attempt to intimidate the people of Chechnya," Kadyrov said.