On July 15th 2009, Natalia Estemirova, a Russian human rights activist working in Chechnya, was abducted in the republic’s capital Grozny. Her body was later found in neighboring Ingushetia. Estemirova had been shot in the head and chest.

Natalia’s colleagues linked her murder to the sensitive investigations she was working on and suspected the Russian government’s involvement in her death. “Memorial”, a human rights NGO where she worked, named one person in particular: the head of the Chechen republic Ramzan Kadyrov, implicated in numerous human rights abuses, including torture and execution of gay Chechens. Kadyrov denied the allegations and sued the center and its chairman for libel.

Two years after her death, Estemirova’s sister Svetlana approached the European Court of Human Rights. Svetlana argued that Russian authorities were responsible for her sister’s death as they had failed to protect her, and that Chechen authorities — including Kadyrov — had personally threatened Natalia and that state officials were involved in her abduction.

Ten years later, on August 31st this year, the Court ruled that Russia has failed to properly investigate Estemirova’s killing but found no evidence that her death was a state-sponsored murder.