A prominent human rights activist has been found dead in Ingushetia with two gun shot wounds to her head after being kidnapped on Wednesday morning in the neighbouring republic of Chechnya, the third killing of an activist this year.

Natalia Estemirova had tirelessly documented abuses by law enforcement agencies for Memorial, the Russian human rights organization, in Grozny, the Chechen capital, since 1999. She was a close friend of Anna Politkovskaya, the crusading journalist who was shot dead outside her apartment in 2006.