Russian justice issued a verdict today two years and six months imprisonment for discrediting the army to a veteran activist Oleg Orlov, leader of the human rights organization Memorial, which received Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

As soon as the decision became known, hooded law enforcement officers They handcuffed 70-year-old Orlov. and put him in a cell in the same premises of the Golovinsky Court in Moscow.

The activist was convicted for an article in which he denounced the current political regime “totalitarian and fascist” that, given what has happened in recent months, including the recent death in prison of an opponent Alexey Navalny, He did not exaggerate, in his words, “one iota.”

On October 11, Orlov, who also demonstrated on Red Square against the war in Ukraine, was fined 150,000 rubles ($1,500) in the same casehowever, the prosecutor’s office appealed this decision, accusing Orlov of “nurturing ideological and political hatred” towards Russia, after which the Moscow City Court ordered a retrial of the case.

Then the judge took into account, among other things, the age of the accused and his a distinguished career as an activist over the past 30 years.

In addition, he was also accused in this case of hostility to traditional moral principles and also against the patriotic values ​​professed by the Kremlin.

“We are accused of discrediting without explaining what they are talking about, and How is it different from legitimate criticism? “We are accused of deliberately disseminating false information without bothering to prove its falsity,” Orlov said the day before, uttering his last words.

Orlov felt identified with the character in the novel.”The Court” by Franz Kafkasince he also does not understand why and what he is accused of.

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“The state in our country once again controls not only social, political and economic life, but also It strives for total control over culture, scientific thought and invades private life. It becomes absolute,” he said.

More than a dozen Western diplomats, including representatives of the United States and the European Union in the Russian capital, They attended Tuesday’s hearing. Memorial reports this on Telegram.

During the process Orlov refused to admit his guilt and he waived the presence of witnesses in his defense, arguing that it would pose a danger to them since he was classified as a foreign agent in early February.

The decision coincided with the ninth anniversary of the murder of the opposition leader and former Russian Deputy Prime Minister near the Kremlin. Boris Nemtsov.

In March, the court opened a criminal case against Orlov under article “They wanted fascism, they already have it” published in the French press and posted November 2022 on Facebook.

“The bloody war declared by the Putin regime in Ukraine means not only the mass murder of people, but also destruction of the infrastructure, economy and cultural assets of this extraordinary country.” the article said.

In December 2021, Russian courts liquidated Memorial International and the Memorial Human Rights Center for creating a “false image of the USSR as a terrorist state,” after which the organization A year later in Oslo he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

(EFE)