The Russian justice system this Tuesday sentenced veteran activist Oleg Orlov, leader of the human rights organization Memorial, to two and a half years in prison for an opinion column titled
They wanted fascism and they had it
.
After hearing the ruling, law enforcement officers handcuffed Orlov, 70, and put him in a police van at the back door of the Golovinski Court in Moscow.
The court, which fined Orlov for his article in October, has reviewed the case with the aggravating circumstances of “hatred towards military personnel” and “ideological hostility towards traditional Russian spiritual, moral and patriotic values.”
“The conviction shows that my article was correct and told the truth,” declared the human rights defender in the courtroom where he was tried.
"I am not alone.
In prison or in freedom, I will continue working [for Russia] together with my colleagues,” Orlov stated upon arriving with his wife at the court before beginning the reading of the verdict, which coincided with the ninth anniversary of the murder near the Kremlin. of the opposition leader and former Russian deputy prime minister, Boris Nemtsov.
Dozens of people were waiting for the activist at the entrance to the court.
Calm, with a smile, although aware that jail awaited him, the co-president of the Center for the Defense of Memorial Rights - a symbolic entity created after the Kremlin liquidated the historic NGO in 2022, recognized that same year with the award Nobel Peace Prize—reminded other activists who are imprisoned in jail.
“I can't advise anyone,” Orlov responded when asked what the opposition can do with Alexei Navalny dead and other dissidents detained.
“Some have left, others have stayed in Russia.
I did not see it possible to work outside the country, here I will be able to do it better,” highlighted the Memorial member, who refused, once again, to retract the words for which he has been condemned.
“I already said it in my article.
Totalitarianism has returned.
It is not communism, it is a special fascism, reminiscent of the fascism of the 20th century,” he stated.
"Navalni said, 'Don't give up.'
And I will add: do not get discouraged and lose optimism.
The truth is on our side, they represent the old, the decrepit.
They have no image of the future, only a false one of the imperial past.
“His image of the future is left behind, that is our victory,” Orlov declared before entering the court.
A police officer handcuffs Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleg Orlov this Tuesday in Moscow.
SERGEI ILNITSKY (EFE)
On October 11, Orlov, who also demonstrated in Red Square against the war in Ukraine, was fined 150,000 rubles (1,505 euros) for this same case, but the Prosecutor's Office appealed the ruling by accusing Orlov of “harbouring hatred.” ideological and political” against Russia, after which the court ordered a repeat trial.
Then, the judge took into account as mitigating factors, among other things, the age of the accused and his brilliant career as an activist over the last 30 years.
Orlov, declared a foreign agent by the authorities, decided not to call any witnesses in his defense so as not to put anyone in danger.
“The lawyer has done an extraordinary job,” said another historical Russian human rights defender, Svetlana Gánnushkina, at the conclusion of the trial, “but the laws are clearly unjust and contradict the Constitution.”
Memorial director Yan Rachinski also showed his support for his teammate.
“He called things by their name,” the activist declared to the press.
“This is absolute censorship,” he added before highlighting that the authorities' only objective is to persecute those who disagree with official opinions.
In addition to the presence of other dissidents, more than a dozen Western diplomats, including representatives of the United States and the ambassador of the European Union in Russia, attended the Orlov trial between Monday and Tuesday.
A Kafkaesque process
The activist, shocked by Navalni's death, was on the verge of giving up the last word, but finally changed his decision.
“All of these are links in the same chain: the death or, more precisely, the murder of Alexei;
judicial reprisals against other critics of the regime, including myself;
the strangulation of freedom in the country;
the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops.
And that's why I decided to speak out,” Orlov said this Monday.
The human rights defender emphasized that his article was written more than a year ago and his friends thought he was exaggerating by talking about totalitarianism today.
“It is now absolutely clear that he was not exaggerating at all,” stressed the historic Memorial member.
“The State returns to control not only social, political and economic life, but also demands total control over culture and scientific thought, and invades private life.”
Orlov compared his trial to
Franz Kafka's
The Trial .
“But unlike Kafka's hero, we know why we are detained, tried, arrested, sentenced and killed.
We are punished for allowing ourselves to criticize the authorities,” Orlov said.
Orlov, this Tuesday in the Moscow court that sentenced him to two and a half years in prison.
SERGEI ILNITSKY (EFE)
In his last intervention, Orlov did not address the Kremlin or the dissidents, but rather the judges, prosecutors and, in general, the anonymous employees who support Putinism.
“Aren't you afraid that not only you and your children, but also, God forbid, your grandchildren, will have to live in this dystopia?
Doesn't the most obvious thing come to mind?: the steamroller of repression can sooner or later overwhelm those who promoted it.
This has happened many times in history,” he concluded his intervention.
One of the hardest moments of the trial occurred last week, when Orlov, who risked his life to save 1,200 hostages in the first Chechen war, had to endure one of the witnesses from the Veterans of Russia organization accusing him of “collaborate with terrorists.”
“You did everything possible to ensure that the bandits escaped reprisals,” Vadim Mironenko blamed Orlov for having acted as a negotiator in the Budyonnovsk crisis of 1995. “You have the blood of the children of North Korea on your hands.” "Ost and Beslan!" added the witness in reference to the hostage crises at the Moscow theater in 2002 and the North Ossetia school crisis in 2003, which claimed hundreds of victims between the executions of terrorists and the assaults by security forces. specials.
Police remove Russian activist Oleg Orlov from court after being sentenced to two and a half years in prison this Tuesday.
SERGEI ILNITSKY (EFE)
The capture of Budyonnovsk was the high point of the first Chechen war.
Some 200 Chechen terrorists stormed the town, in southern Russia, and more than 1,200 civilians were taken hostage in a hospital that was unsuccessfully raided by Russian forces.
Dozens of people died, some of them executed.
Orlov and a handful of activists mediated between the Russian government and the Chechen rebels, and an agreement was finally reached: almost all the civilians were freed, and Orlov and the rest of the activists rode the terrorists' convoy back to Chechnya as human shields.
Weeks later a ceasefire was reached.
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