Russia jails top human rights campaigner
OLEG ORLOV sat quietly while the judge read out the verdict to an overcrowded Moscow courtroom.
The 70-year-old human rights campaigner, the judge said, was guilty of repeatedly “discrediting the arms forces” by joining demonstrations against the war in Ukraine and writing an article titled “They wanted fascism. They got it”. He was sentenced to two and a half years in jail.
“Well,” he said, as a masked guard led him away, “the verdict showed that my article was accurate and true.”
He was applauded by a small crowd of supporters in the courtroom and the narrow corridor outside as he left.
Mr Orlov, the leader of Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights group, is one of the most outspoken public critics of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
He was initially fined 150,000 roubles (£1,285) by a district court last year, but a retrial was ordered after he appealed and prosecutors asked for a jail sentence. The prosecution said during the trial that he had shown “political hatred of Russia”.
Mr Orlov, maintained his innocence, saying the prosecution violated the Russian constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech. In his closing remarks to the trial on Monday, he said Russia was suffering a “strangulation of freedom” that was turning the country into a “dystopia”.
Memorial said in a statement: “The sentence against Mr Orlov is an attempt to drown out the voice of the human rights movement in Russia and any criticism of the state but we will continue our work.” It said Mr Orlov was a genuine Russian patriot, adding: “However, in modern Russia everything is turned on its head: war is peace, calls for peace are a crime, and a warning that the state cultivates violence is a ‘hate crime’.”
Mr Orlov refused to flee Russia, despite persecution, saying it was “my country”.
Tatiana Kasatkina, Mr Orlov’s wife, said outside the court: “He and I created Memorial together ... But the most important thing that we have created is a team. A team that will work regardless of whether Oleg is free or not. So we will work. We will live.”