The work of the Human Rights Center “Memorial” in the Chechnya can be resumed within the nearest weeks. On September 7,  the employees of the Chechen branch of the HRC “Memorial” held a meeting and made a decision to restart their work in Chechnya.

“In Grozny, we’ve held a general meeting of the ‘Memorial’ employees, who work in four offices: in Grozny, Urus-Martan, Gudermes and Sernovodsk. The main topic was whether we resume our work in the Chechnya’s territory or not. In the course of discussion, the employees spoke in favour of continuing our work in Chechnya,” Shakhman Akbulatov, head of the Grozny-based office of the HRC “Memorial”, said in his conversation with the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

According to his story, the final decision on the topic will be made in Moscow, on about September 20 by the Board of the HRC “Memorial”.

Mr.Akbulatov also said that Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner of the Council of Europe, who came to Grozny on September 7, had visited, together with Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin and members of his delegation, the “Memorial” office in Grozny. The topic of the meeting was the investigation of the murder of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the HRC “Memorial”.

Memorial had decided to suspend their activities in Chechnya, after the murder of Natalya Estemirova.