Russia jails rights campaigner Oleg Orlov for 2-1/2 years

Veteran human rights activist Oleg Orlov was sentenced Tuesday by a Moscow court to two and a half years in prison after he was found guilty of discrediting Russian’s armed forces in a trial that has been condemned by international observers as politically motivated.

Veteran human rights activist Oleg Orlov was sentenced Tuesday by a Moscow court to two and a half years in prison after he was found guilty of discrediting Russian’s armed forces in a trial that has been condemned by international observers as politically motivated.

Orlov, 70, has served for more than two decades as one of the leaders of rights group Memorial. It won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, a year after being banned and dissolved in Russia.

Memorial said Orlov was handcuffed after the verdict, and the court ordered him to be taken immediately into custody.

In his closing remarks to the trial on Monday, Orlov decried the “strangulation of freedom” in Russia, which he referred to as a “dystopia.”

The case against him stemmed from an article he wrote in 2022 in which he said Russia under President Vladimir Putin had descended into fascism.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-jails-rights-campaigner-oleg-orlov-2-12-years-rcna140633

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