MOSCOW -- Russian human rights activists are urging the country's authorities to guarantee their safety in the volatile North Caucasus region, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Several of Russia's leading human rights activists issued a statement on August 11 expressing their concerns over the frequent abduction, torture, and killing of rights activists in the North Caucasus.
The statement was issued after the bodies of Chechen human rights activist Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Alik Dzhabrailov, were found on the outskirts of Grozny on August 11.
The authors of the statement called the murder "an outlaw execution" and urged Russian authorities "to stop the terror, find, and punish the killers."
The statement was signed by such prominent human rights activists as Helsinki Group in Moscow chief Lyudmila Alekseyeva, For Human Rights movement leader Lev Ponomarev, Public Committee to Protect Scientists head Ernst Cherny, and others.
Less than one month ago another Chechen human rights activist, Natalya Estemirova, was abducted in Chechnya and found dead in neighboring Ingushetia.