Russian Human Rights Campaigner Jailed
She declared the veteran human rights campaigner guilty of "repeatedly discrediting" the Russian armed forces, and announced the punishment: Oleg Orlov, co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisation "Memorial", was sent to prison for two and a half years.
He was handcuffed and, minutes later, led out of the courtroom by police, which had been a re-trial, and in October 2023, the court had delivered a guilty verdict, too. But the punishment then had been considerably milder.
Prosecutors complained that, the sentence was too soft, and a higher court cancelled the ruling, and a re-trial was ordered, and it was a sign that in Russia the authorities were becoming increasingly intolerant of public criticism.
In protest at being forced back to court, Oleg Orlov paid little attention to proceedings second time round. Instead, he sat in court reading a copy of The Trial, Franz Kafka's classic on the absurdity of life and injustice.
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