The Golovinsky district court in Moscow sentenced Oleg Orlov, the co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Memorial human rights center, to 2 1/2 years in prison for "repeatedly discrediting" Russian armed forces involved in the Kremlin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Orlov, 70, refused to take part in closing arguments on February 27 and asked his defense team not to invite their witnesses to the stand, saying that they may be labeled "foreign agents" if they testify. Orlov was labeled a "foreign agent" in early February.
In his final statement shortly before the verdict and sentence were pronounced, Orlov reiterated his innocence, stressing that Russian authorities have banned "any independent opinion."
"[Russian officials'] children or grandchildren will be ashamed to talk about where their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, and grandmothers served and what they did. And the same will happen to those who, by carrying out orders, are committing crimes in Ukraine. In my view, this is the worst punishment, and it is inevitable," Orlov said,
"The punishment for me is clearly inevitable as well, because in today’s circumstances, hoping for an acquittal on this charge would be the highest level of naivete. And now, very soon, we will see what the verdict is. But I have nothing to regret or repent."
In October last year, the court fined Orlov 150,000 rubles ($1,590) on a charge that stemmed from several single-person pickets he held condemning Russia's aggression against Ukraine, along with an article he wrote criticizing the Russian government for sending troops to Ukraine that was published in the French magazine Mediapart.
In mid-December, the Moscow City Court canceled that ruling and sent Orlov's case back to prosecutors, who had appealed, saying the sentence was too mild.
Earlier this month, investigators updated the charge against the rights defender, saying that his alleged misdeeds were motivated by "ideological enmity against traditional Russian spiritual, moral, and patriotic values."
Memorial has noted that the case was reinvestigated hastily, while Orlov said he thinks the investigators received an order to move quickly with the case to allow for the retrial.
Orlov gained prominence as one of Russia's leading human rights activists after he co-founded the Memorial human rights center following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 2004-2006, Orlov was a member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Institutions.
For his contribution to human rights in Russia, in 2009, Orlov was awarded the Sakharov Prize, an international honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights and freedom of thought.
Memorial was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for its longtime "fight for human rights and democracy."