The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that the Russian authorities’ investigation into the circumstances of the death of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova was insufficient.

Estemirova was abducted and murdered in July 2009 after having investigated various cases of “kidnappings, torture and extrajudicial killings in Chechnya.” She had publicly alleged and denounced various instances of crimes by Chechen insurgents and law enforcement officers.

The application for review before the court was brought by Estemirova’s sister, who alleged that the government’s investigation of Estemirova’s death was not conducted efficiently or effectively. The government posited the theory that the Shalazhi jamaat, including a man named Bhashayev, committed the abduction and murder in revenge for Estemirova’s journalism and to “smear” the Chechen authorities. Accordingly, Bashayev was charged with murder in 2010, though his whereabouts are unknown.

In response to this theory and the documentation the court received, the court held that the government failed to meet its burden to explain satisfactorily and convincingly:

(i) [W]hy Mr Bashayev’s DNA had not been present on Ms Estemirova’s body or at the crime scene; (ii) how the investigators had identified the perpetrators’ car’s registration plates; (iii) why Mr Bashayev had not been registered as the legal owner of the car; (iv) how it had been possible for officer N. to remember Mr Bashayev’s face six months after the events in question and why he had not noticed that his documents had been forged; (v) why the bullets found at the crime scene had not matched the cartridges shot from the gun allegedly belonging to Mr Bashayev; (vi) why, according to an expert report, those bullets had not been shot from the silencer, allegedly belonging to Mr Bashayev; (vii) why the soil from the VAZ-2107 car had not matched the soil form the crime scene; and (viii) who had been the driver of the car which followed the perpetrators from the scene of abduction.

The court held that the government violated Article 2 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which protects “[e]veryone’s right to life,” and Article 38 of the Convention by failing to fully cooperate with the court and share its documentation of the investigation. Accordingly, the Russian government was ordered to pay the applicant 20,000 euros.