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Orlov spoke to journalists after a court hearing on February 26 in Moscow
Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / dpa
A court in Moscow sentenced Oleg Orlov to two years and six months in prison for discrediting the army.
Orlov is one of Russia's best-known civil rights activists and co-chairman of the Memorial human rights foundation.
The day before the verdict was announced, Orlov spoke to journalists.
A video recording shows 70-year-old Oleg Orlov outside on the steps of the Golovinsky Court in northwestern Moscow on Monday after giving his last words in court.
»I stayed in Russia to continue the work I have been doing for many years.
“I also see my trial as part of my human rights work,” he told journalists.
On Tuesday, the human rights activist was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.
Many ambassadors came: the Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Australia, Austria, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Latvia, Germany, France, USA, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, as well as the EU ambassador.
The criminal case against Orlov was opened in March 2023 because of the article “They wanted fascism.
“You got him” introduced.
The text in which the civil rights activist condemns the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine was first published in the French internet newspaper Mediapart.
Orlov then posted it in Russian on his Facebook profile.
»The bloody war that the Putin regime has unleashed in Ukraine is not only the mass murder of people, the destruction of the infrastructure, the economy and the cultural assets of this wonderful country.
It is not just the destruction of the foundations of international law.
It is also the worst blow to the future of Russia," says Orlov's article, among other things.
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