Iryna Nozdrovska, whose body was discovered on 1 January, disappeared days after helping to block release from jail of nephew of a judge

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The brutal killing of a human rights lawyer in Kiev has sparked widespread anger and protests amid allegations of entrenched corruption within the Ukrainian justice system.

Iryna Nozdrovska’s body was discovered in a river by a passerby in a northern Kiev suburb on 1 January. The 38-year-old lawyer, who had been reported missing on 29 December, had suffered multiple stab wounds, according to reports. “There was such anger, such hatred [in the attack],” her daughter, Anastasiya, told Ukrainian media.

The Ukrainian foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, has described the murder as a “challenge to the state” and the case as “a test of our society’s ability to protect female activists and to ensure justice as a whole”.

The US embassy in Ukraine expressed shock over the killing and said those responsible for Nozdrovska’s death must be brought to justice.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters demand a fair investigation into the death of Iryna Nozdrovska. Photograph: Inna Sokolovska/EPA

Nozdrovska disappeared just two days after she had helped block the release from prison of Dmytro Rossoshansky, the nephew of an influential judge. Rossoshansky was jailed in May for seven years for running down and killing Nozdrovska’s sister, Svitlana Sapatanyska, in his car while under the influence of drugs and alcohol in September 2015.

Rossoshansky’s application for an amnesty after serving eight months of his sentence was rejected on 27 December by a court in Kiev. Nozdrovska had headed a public campaign to raise awareness of the case.

Nozdrovska received numerous death threats both before and after May’s trial, as well as during December’s appeal hearing. Her daughter was also assaulted by unknown assailants in 2016 in an attack that Nozdrovska said was intended to warn her to drop the case.

Police say a special team has been set up to investigate Nozdrovska’s death, and officers are reportedly examining a possible link with the Rossoshansky case. The Rossoshansky family have not commented on the case.

Hundreds of people rallied outside a police headquarters in Kiev on 2 January to demand justice for Nozdrovska and call for the resignation of the interior minister, Arsen Avakov.

The authorities’ response to Nozdrovska’s killing is being watched closely by supporters of the 2014 Maidan revolution, whose goals included eradicating the corruption and nepotism that has plagued post-Soviet Ukraine.

“People have seen very many recent cases where criminals, killers, have been freed by corrupt courts. This makes people very angry. They are asking: where is justice?” said Mustafa Nayyem, an MP who was a leading figure during the Maidan protests. “People have very little faith in law enforcement agencies right now. This case is a concrete test of the ideas of Maidan.”

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president turned Ukrainian opposition figure, said Nozdrovska was killed by a “criminal system”.

Nozdrovska’s death came after she had publicly celebrated the court’s decision to deny Rossoshansky’s early release, and thanked supporters. “The rest of my life, whatever time I have left to live, won’t be enough to thank you all,” she wrote on Facebook two days before she vanished.