Cherkasov: investigation considers involvement of militant Bashaev in Estemirova's murder as main version

The investigation continues considering involvement of Alkhazur Bashaev, killed in November 2009, as the main version of the murder of Natalia Estemirova; and it is not clear whether the evidences of employees of the "Memorial" were taken into account, as Alexander Cherkasov, a member of the Board of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The investigation named the liquidated militant Alkhazur Bashaev to be Natalia Estemirova's killer," Mr Cherkasov said on July 15. "However, in early May I talked to our former employees to clarify certain facts that I later announced. They worked for the 'Memorial', but then had to emigrate for safety reasons."

"In the end of June I was interrogated and narrated all the facts I knew for putting down into the protocol," the human rights activist has noted. "These materials are already in the case files. I don't know whether they were considered by the inspector, because neither we nor the victim's advocate have opportunities now to get acquainted in full with the materials. Besides, the advocate is bound by the nondisclosure subscription."

"However, we now see that the investigation continues using the version of the liquidated militant as the main one. All the latest interrogations referred to this version only. For this reason we made our own and told everything we knew to all the interested parties," said Alexander Cherkasov.

Inspector Igor Sobol, who runs the case, refrained from any comments to the "Caucasian Knot".

In the meantime, a source close to the investigation said on the conditions of anonymity that the recent statement of President Medvedev made on July 15 that the executor of Estemirova's murder was announced into search "was based on the fact that it is not yet known for sure whether Bashaev was murdered, while Medvedev is informed on the course of the case by Bastrykin." According to the source, quite possibly in the near future the main version of the murder will be changed. "In general we don't speak about the customer yet," he has noted.