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Murder most foul

17th July 2009 by Helena 4 Comments  

The murder of Natalia Estemirova, a human rights activist based in Chechnya, is so brazen and so appalling I can hardly believe it is true.

This is a woman who worked tirelessly to expose human rights abuses, to protect people and help them. Her kidnapping and subsequent murder is cruel beyond belief and almost certainly organised by those she sought to expose; among them the Russian sponsored Chechen president.

She was bundled into a car outside her home where she lives with her 15-year-old daughter. Someone heard her shout “I am being taken”. Next thing she was found dead on the notorious ‘Kidnap Highway’ with bullet wounds in her head and chest.

natalia.jpg

“I can’t imagine Mum won’t be around any more and that I won’t be making morning coffee for her,” said her daughter Lana who is now an orphan. Estemirova was a widow.

The international community has of course condemned the murder, but until someone actually says or does something concrete the Russians will carry on with impunity. Since 2000, 17 journalists have been killed including Anna Politkovskaya and many others involved in investigations that could harm those in power. Only one case has resulted in a conviction. Funny that.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Human Rights, Politics, blog --> Tagged With: murder

4 thoughts on Murder most foul

  • mimi says:
    18th July 2009 at 1:55 am

    That is shocking! Her poor daughter, my heart goes out to her. Losing her Mum at such a young age is bad enough, but to know that she was murdered must be terrible. I hope that someone else takes over where she left off.

  • Jo says:
    18th July 2009 at 3:35 am

    So nice to see you cover this sad death, and give it a human side.

    As you said, Ms. Estemirova was investigating allegations that President Kadyrov has previously participated in torture, which resulted in the death of some detainees, at the time of her murder.

    Vladimir Putin, then President of Russia, is responsible as for the appointment of Ramzan A. Kadyrov as Chechen President in 2007.

    For Russia to keep its credibility on the world political stage, Russia must to step in and find those responsible for Natalya Estemirova’s death.

  • Antonia says:
    18th July 2009 at 9:30 am

    And now Ramzan Kadyrov is suing Oleg Orlov, the head of the Russian Rights group “Memorial” because he dared to state that Kadyrov is directly or indirectly responsible for Estemirova’s murder.
    The fate of many activists in Russia is similiar to those in Iran, yet Medvedev (Putin’s puppet?) is fettered on the stage of world leaders.

    I hope I am wrong, but I don’t believe there will be a conviction for Estemirova’s death

  • Elisabeth Loesch says:
    18th July 2009 at 9:42 am

    Human rights watch and Amnesty International do a great job as organizations. If you’re an individual living in Chehchnya, you’ve got to be insane to fight on your own. Unless you’ve got a death wish and want to go down in history as a martyr. A lot of good it does your children!

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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