Published February 27,2024
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Veteran human rights activist Oleg Orlov was sentenced on Tuesday by a Moscow courtroom to 2 and a half years in jail after he was discovered responsible of discrediting Russian’s armed forces in a trial that has been condemned by worldwide observers as politically motivated.
Orlov, 70, has served for greater than twenty years as one of many leaders of rights group Memorial. It received a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, a 12 months after being banned and dissolved in Russia.
Memorial stated Orlov was handcuffed after the decision, and the courtroom ordered him to be taken instantly into custody.
In his closing remarks to the trial on Monday, Orlov decried the “strangulation of freedom” in Russia, which he known as a “dystopia.”
The case in opposition to him stemmed from an article he wrote in 2022 by which he stated Russia underneath President Vladimir Putin had descended into fascism.
He was initially fined 150,000 roubles ($1,628) by a district courtroom final 12 months, however a retrial was ordered and prosecutors sought a jail sentence of two years and 11 months.
The U.N. particular rapporteur on human rights in Russia, Mariana Katzarova, known as Orlov’s trial “an orchestrated attempt to silence the voices of human rights defenders in Russia.”
Memorial, based in 1989, has documented human rights abuses from the time of Soviet chief Josef Stalin to the current and defended freedom of speech, with a give attention to figuring out and honouring particular person victims.
Source: www.anews.com.tr