Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov on Saturday criticized the work of a Chechen human rights activist killed last month, saying she did not have “honor, dignity or a conscience.”

Natalya Estemirova, a prominent activist for Memorial who documented abductions and murders in the North Caucasus, was snatched off a Grozny street last month and found dead hours later along an Ingush highway.

Immediately after the killing, the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader vowed to oversee the investigation into the murder personally — even though the victim’s supporters and colleagues accuse his security forces of being involved in the slaying.

In an interview with the Radio Svoboda station posted on its web site on Saturday, Kadyrov once again denied that he was involved, saying that if his or his forces’ guilt is proven the punishment will follow.

“If Kadyrov is guilty, if Kadyrov’s people are guilty, it must be proven,” he said in the interview.

“Why would Kadyrov kill a woman whom no one needs? She didn’t have honor, dignity or a conscience, but I appointed her the head of the [Grozny Human Rights] Council,” he said, adding that she ignored council meetings and “talked rubbish.”

In October 2006, when questions circulated about Kadyrov’s alleged involvement in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, he brushed off the accusations, saying, “I do not kill women, and I have never killed women.”

Kadyrov has refused to allow independent experts to participate in the investigation of Estemirova’s killing, and the Foreign Ministry declined an offer from United Nations investigators who wanted to lead an independent probe.

Following Estemirova’s death, Memorial suspended its branch in Chechnya but is continuing its work in the republic through nearby offices.

“Kadyrov doesn’t think it’s necessary to guarantee the safety of human rights activists’ work in Chechnya,” Memorial board member Alexander Cherkasov said on Ekho Moskvy radio, commenting on Kadyrov’s statement.