MOSCOW, September 25 (RIA Novosti) - A leading Russian human rights group rejected on Friday a proposal from the Chechen leader for an out-of-court settlement of his libel suit, a RIA correspondent reported from the courtroom.
Memorial head Oleg Orlov had accused President Ramzan Kadyrov of involvement in the murder of a rights activist in the troubled North Caucasus republic in July.
A lawyer acting for Kadyrov said the plaintiff would drop his criminal libel charges against Orlov and demand for 10 million rubles ($320,000) in compensation for damage to his "honor and dignity" if Orlov published a denial of his accusation on the group's website.
The defendant declined the proposal.
"The plaintiff actually proposed we admit his claims. We are not happy with the proposal," Anna Stavitskaya, a lawyer acting for Memorial, said.
Orlov said in his statement earlier: "I know, I am certain who is to blame for the murder of Natasha Estemirova. We all know this person. His name is Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the Chechen Republic."
He moved to elaborate on his accusation in the courtroom on Friday saying he meant the Chechen leader's "social and political" responsibility for the crime.
"I did not talk about [Kadyrov's] involvement, I talked about his responsibility and said he was to 'blame' not in the legal, but in the sociopolitical meaning of the word," Orlov told the court, providing what he said was evidence to substantiate his claim, which included the president's public statements.
Rights groups have reported major violations committed by law enforcement and security personnel in Chechnya, including illegal detentions and torture of those accused of being involved or supportive of separatists during antiterrorism operations.
In his latest interview, Kadyrov pledged to "sweep away" remaining militants and also named his preferred successor.
Human Rights Watch urged Kadyrov early this month to drop his defamation claim so that it did not distract authorities from efforts "to identify those responsible for the killing."
Natalia Estemirova, a leading Memorial researcher in Chechnya, was abducted outside her home in Grozny, Chechnya's capital, on July 15 and found shot dead in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia later the same day. Estemirova's murder was followed three weeks later by the killings of Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Alik Dzhabrailov, who worked for a charity that provides humanitarian aid to war victims.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier dismissed reports on Kadyrov's involvement as "primitive."
