Russian justice on Tuesday sentenced the dissident Oleg Orlov, a figure in the defense of human rights, to two and a half years in prison, continuing the relentless repression which has already thrown almost all opponents behind bars or into custody. exile.
Veteran of Memorial, the NGO co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize and dissolved by Russian justice, this 70-year-old man had made the choice, unlike many other critics of the Kremlin, to stay in Russia to “continue the fight “.
He was convicted for repeated denunciations of the military offensive launched by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine two years ago. An opinion that he repeated Monday in court during his last speech.
As the verdict was announced on Tuesday, Mr. Orlov, wearing a sweater and thin glasses, winked at his wife Tatiana and then said: “Tania, you promised me! », appearing to ask him not to cry, according to an AFP journalist at the hearing.
Several dozen of his supporters came to court to support Mr. Orlov, aged 70. As he left the room, handcuffed and surrounded by police, Mr. Orlov was applauded with cries of “We love you!” »
“We have returned to the Soviet regime, where those who are not on the side of power are accused of lies,” denounced Ian Ratchinski, another human rights defender, to AFP.
Mr. Orlov’s wife, Tatiana, for her part told AFP before the verdict that she expected a conviction. According to her, Mr. Orlov was nevertheless in a good mood on Monday and “slept well”, despite the prosecution’s indictment which had required almost three years in prison.
Human rights activist Svetlana Gannouchkina denounced a trial that “has nothing to do with the law”. “To be tried for statements calling for peace and criticizing the authorities is absurd. But every tyrant needs enemies,” she said.
“Don’t lose courage”
During his last speech before the verdict on Monday, Mr. Orlov once again denounced “the strangulation of freedom” in Russia and “the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine”.
“I repent of nothing and regret nothing,” he said.
He also denounced the death on February 16 of opponent Alexeï Navalny in his Arctic prison, which he described as “murder”, and called on supporters of the Russian opposition to “not lose courage and optimism “.
US Ambassador Lynne Tracy said in a statement on Tuesday that she was “armed and concerned” by the conviction of Oleg Orlov, stressing that he “has personally fought for the rights of Russians for more than 45 years”.
“In the past, his efforts were recognized at the highest level. In today’s Russia, it is for these same efforts that he is imprisoned,” she lambasted, accusing the Kremlin of “plunging the country back into a period of obscurantism, danger and isolation.”
At the end of a first trial, Oleg Orlov was found guilty in October 2023 of having “discredited” the army and sentenced to a small fine, a very lenient verdict in a Russia which has become accustomed to imprisoning detractors of power.
This sentence had been requested by the prosecution but it then changed its mind and appealed.
In fact, Oleg Orlov is accused of having demonstrated against the Russian assault in Ukraine and of having signed a vitriolic column against the Russian authorities published by the French media Mediapart.
This text accused Russian troops of the “mass” murder of Ukrainian civilians and denounced the “victory” in Russia of the “darkest forces”, those who “dreamed of total revenge” after the disintegration of the USSR in 1991 .
Active since the 1970s, Oleg Orlov has become one of the pillars of Memorial, the main organization fighting in Russia to preserve the memory of Soviet repressions and documenting current ones.
The NGO was dissolved at the end of 2021 by Russian justice, but it was then awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, a few months after the launch of the Russian assault in Ukraine.