MOSCOW There was a long line of people waiting for Golovinski’s court in the morning. They had come to show their support for a long-time human rights activist To Oleg Orlov.
The guards reassured the visitors: Everyone would be allowed in. Oleg Petrovich was still awaited.
70-year-old Orlov, one of the founding members of the human rights organization Memorial, was charged with smearing the armed forces, as he had written for the French online publication Mediapart in November 2022 of the article They wanted fascism – they got it.
In the first trial last year, Orlov was fined, but then the prosecutor suddenly toughened his line.
In an interview with last year, Orlov speculated that the order had come from above.
The crowd waiting in the courtroom greeted Orlov arriving at the hearing with applause. The session was also followed by several diplomats from Western countries.
The Supreme Court of Russia ordered Memorial to be closed in December 2021. The following year, the organization received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Orlov was handcuffed in the courtroom
At the door of the courtroom, Orlov was still calling from his phone Yuri Shevchukin and Dmitri Yemelyanov pieces Rodina, vernis’ domoy or Birthplace, returns home.
The lyrics of the song seemed to fit the moment: “When the merciless spring comes, / in the midst of the hottest silence / my out-of-sync pulse takes / my heart to the courtroom.”
Reporters and cameramen were still swarming around Orlov when the judge Jelena Astahova arrived at the hall. The judge got up from behind his desk and started reading the verdict, ignoring the commotion.
The prosecutor had demanded two years and eleven months in prison. The verdict was not surprising: two years and six months in prison.
The guards hurried to put handcuffs on Orlov and lead him to the glass booth in the hall, the “aquarium”, while the judge was still reading the verdict. The booth door slammed shut loudly.
Right after the end of the sentence, the court officials started to rush the journalists and Orlov’s supporters out of the courtroom and turned off the lights.
Despite the commotion, the crowd stayed in the corridor and applauded Orlov as the guards led him away in handcuffs.
“These are all single chain tires”
The reading of the verdict fell on one somber memorial day. On February 27, 2015, an opposition politician was murdered in the heart of Moscow Boris Nemtsov.
The opposition leader also overshadowed the trial To Alexei Navalny death at the hands of the Russian prison system.
On Monday, Orlov spoke about Navalny in his closing remarks. He said that in his shock he even considered skipping the speech.
– But then I thought: these are all links in one chain – the death of Alexei Navalny, more precisely, the murder, and the trials against other critics of the regime, including me, the weakening of freedom in the country, the deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine, Orlov said According to the Mediazona news site.
– And I decided to speak anyway.
“They tell the truth and you don’t want to listen to them”
A Muscovite in front of the courthouse Alexei Kondratyev said that he had come to show his support for his old comrade.
In 1991, they participated together in the defense of the then parliament and government building, the White House, when the old communists tried to seize power in the Soviet Union.
– We were prepared for the fact that we might have to die, but in any case, we had a legitimate legitimate power behind us: the President of the Soviet Union GorbachevPresident of Russia Yeltsinthe mayor of Moscow PopovKondratyev told .
According to him, the situation is different now.
– Now we have nothing, only emptiness. There are a handful of dissidents and this administration that is ready to destroy anyone who shows any sign of resistance.
– It is painful and unbearable to watch when such a bright person, a true hero, is judged. He sits and reads Kafkaand everything crazy is happening around him, Larisa Markina, who arrived at the courthouse, said.
Orlov often read Franz Kafka’s classic novel Oikeusjuttu during the trial.
Markina said that she had attended 35 political trials over the course of a year and a half, so Orlov’s sentence was no longer a surprise.
– This is a huge accident. For me personally. And to my country. And for these people, Larisa Markina said.
– They tell the truth and you don’t want to listen to them. That’s all.