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 sanctions against sixty Russian officials may prove the campaign's most crucial success yet.

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

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

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 a new novel by Zoya Svetova, but the characters and scenarios are far from fiction. oDR is pleased to present exclusive extracts from the novel.

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 faces a difficult task persuading others of his integrity.

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.