The Golovinsky district court in Moscow has begun the retrial of veteran Russian rights defender Oleg Orlov, a co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Memorial human rights center, on a charge of "repeatedly discrediting" Russian armed forces involved in Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
In October last year, the court fined Orlov 150,000 rubles ($1,630) on the 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 appealed saying the sentence was too mild.
In February, Russian authorities added Orlov to the "foreign agents" registry, and 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."
If convicted, the 70-year-old Orlov may face three years in prison.
Memorial said earlier that the case was reinvestigated in a surprisingly expedited way. Orlov said he thinks the investigators had received an order from the top to quickly reinvestigate the case and send it to the court for retrial.
"Despite that rush, we are ready to prove our innocence and our position with reference to the rule of the constitution," Orlov said earlier.
Memorial launched an online petition to support Orlov.
More than 32,000 people signed the petition as of February 16.
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.
In 2009, for his contribution to human rights in Russia, Orlov was awarded with 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."