A lawyer has been found dead in Ukraine days after helping to make sure the man convicted of causing the death of her sister was not released from prison.

The body of Iryna Nozdrovska was found in a district of Kyiv on January 1, days after she was reported missing after leaving work on December 29.

Nozdrovska was the target of threats for her efforts in the case of Dmytro Rossoshanskyy, who was convicted of causing the death of Nozdrovska’s sister, Svitlana Sapatinska, in 2015 when he hit her while driving his car.

Judges rejected an appeal by Rossoshanskyy, the nephew of a Kyiv region judge, to overturn under an amnesty his seven-year prison term on December 27, thanks in large part to efforts by Nozdrovska to raise public awareness about the case.

Nozdrovska and others mentioned that the young man’s "drug-addict mates" had come to the court to take him home ahead of his expected release. She thanked the judges for what she called "one of the extremely rare just court rulings."

Based on reporting by Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group