Zoya Svetova

Zoya Svetova is a campaigning journalist living and working in Moscow. Her work has been recognized by both Amnesty International and the Russian Union of Journalists, and she is twice-laureate of the Sakharov Prize "for journalism as an act of conscience". Zoya also serves as a member of the Moscow Public Oversight Commission for prisons.

Sergei Magnitsky: sanctions in the name of justice

It is nearly two years since Sergei Magnitsky died a shocking death in Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina prison. Since then, an imaginative campaign by friends and colleagues has kept his case in the international spotlight. For Zoya Svetova, the recent decision by US authorities to impose visa sanctio

By Zoya Svetova

/ 16 Aug 2011

Finding the innocent guilty: part III

A lowly researcher finds himself subject to the forces of the Russian security service and a flawed justice system. The third part of exclusive extracts from Zoya Svetova's "Finding the innocent guilty". Part I click here. Part II click here

By Zoya Svetova

/ 21 May 2011

Finding the innocent guilty: part II

A lowly researcher finds himself subject to the forces of the Russian security service and a flawed justice system. oDR is pleased to present the second part of exclusive extracts from Zoya Svetova's "Finding the innocent guilty". Read Part I here

By Zoya Svetova

/ 20 May 2011

Finding the innocent guilty: part I

A lowly researcher finds himself subject to the forces of the Russian security service and a flawed justice system. A trial is abandoned after word leaks of a jury minded to acquit; upon resumption, a new hand-picked jury comes to the opposite conclusion. This Kafkaesque nightmare is the basis of

By Zoya Svetova

/ 19 May 2011

Igor Sutyagin and the price of freedom

The imprisonment of military researcher Igor Sutyagin for alleged espionage has long troubled Russian human rights campaigners, writes Zoya Svetova. He is now free, but only after agreeing to agree he was a spy. Those familiar with Russian prisons will understand why he acted as he did, but he fac

By Zoya Svetova

/ 26 Jul 2010

Prison as a death sentence

The death in custody of Sergei Magnitsky in November shocked the world and mobilised President Medvedev into a promise of reform. Yet, as a second death tragically illustrates, the system has remained essentially unchanged: brutal, dependent and secretive.

By Zoya Svetova

/ 14 May 2010