At 71 and behind bars, the great figure of Russian dissidence Oleg Orlov appeared in court by videoconference on Thursday for his opposition to the conflict in Ukraine. Despite the confirmation of his sentence, he did not mince his words.
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The words spoken by Oleg Orlov on Russian justice testify to his tenacity, his will to fight the power no matter what, his virulence intact despite prison, his great culture too. To challenge the judicial system, this figure of dissidence has visibly calibrated his words carefully, consciously measuring their weight.
“ They have distorted, perverted and finally achieved the total destruction of justice and law “, Orlov said. A quote from American lawyer Telford Taylor at the Nuremberg trials, which tried the main Nazi leaders after the Second World War. “ They made the judiciary an integral part of the dictatorship. The courts they created and ran were subject only to the political dictates of the regime; they abolished any semblance of judicial independence. “, continued Oleg Orlov, still quoting Telford Taylor.
Because he is 71 years old and a symbol, the Russian justice system had initially sentenced him to a fine in the first instance for remarks “ discrediting the Russian army “.
Others would have kept a low profile after this unprecedented leniency. Not Oleg Orlov, who, four months later after an appeal by the prosecutor, saw his sentence increased to a prison sentence.
Oleg Orlov had always assumed his choice to stay in Russia without ever keeping a low profile, including in court. Her life is intertwined with her fight within Memorial, born at the end of the Soviet Union. This NGO which documented repressions, both those under the Soviet Union and contemporary ones, was dissolved at the end of 2021 in Moscow. She is co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, with the Center for Civil Liberties, a NGO Ukrainian, and Ales Bialiatski, a currently imprisoned Belarusian political activist known for his work as head of Viasna, the leading human rights organization in Belarus.
Read alsoRussia: Opposition increasingly mistreated, dissident Oleg Orlov sentenced to two and a half years in prison