Veteran Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov was sentenced Tuesday in a Moscow court to two and a half years in prison after being found guilty of discrediting the Russian armed forces in a trial that international observers condemned as politically motivated.
Seventy-year-old Orlov was one of the leaders of the human rights group Memorial for more than two decades. That organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, a year after it was banned and disbanded in Russia.
The prosecution asked the Golovinsky district court in Moscow to sentence Orlov to two years and 11 months in prison, accusing him of repeatedly "discrediting" the Russian army due to the invasion of Ukraine.
"The court found Orlov guilty and sentenced him to two years and six months... in a penal colony under the general regime," the judge said.
As the judge read the verdict, the gray-haired activist winked at his wife, colleague Tatjana.
He then, after being detained in the courtroom, asked his wife to approach him.
"Tanya, you promised me!" he told her as she started to cry.
About 200 supporters waited in the corridor in front of the courtroom to say goodbye to him.
Orlov was accused of discrediting the Russian army in a column written for the French online publication "Mediapart", and was sentenced in October after the first trial.
The fine was a relatively light sentence and prosecutors sought a new trial.
While other activists fled the increasingly harsh repression, Orlov remained in Russia, saying he was "more useful" there than abroad.
DON'T MISS IT
Orlov, whose retrial began on February 16, came into court Monday clutching a copy of Franz Kafka's novel "The Trial," about a man who was arrested and tried on charges unknown to him.
He recently told AFP that a career spent working on the historical memory of Soviet atrocities and human rights abuses in modern Russia - particularly in the North Caucasus - left him with no choice but to campaign against the offensive in Ukraine.
The Memorial organization has established itself as a key pillar of Russian civil society by preserving the memory of the victims of communist repression and campaigning against human rights violations.
The organization was officially disbanded by Russian authorities in late 2021 and won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize along with a leading Ukrainian human rights group and a veteran Belarusian activist.
Bonus video:
