The Moscow court sentenced the dissident Oleg Orlov, former co-president of the Memorial foundation which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, to two and a half years in prison.
He is accused of having repeatedly denounced Russia's aggression against Ukraine. “The court has established Orlov's guilt and orders a sentence of two years and six months... in a general regime penal colony,” the judge said, according to an AFP journalist present in the courtroom.
The European Union says it is "shocked". Orlov "did not commit any crime but exercised his constitutional right" to criticize the actions of the Russian government, writes EU High Representative Josep Borrell in a note, who also asks the Russian authorities for "the immediate and unconditional release" of all political prisoners and the abandonment of the repressive policy followed to repress civil society and independent voices.
Orlov's conviction, Borrell underlines, "goes against Russian legislation and the Russian Constitution and has an obvious political motivation." Hence the Union's solidarity with all Russian citizens who "dared to make their voices heard and criticize the war wanted by Russia and who were persecuted and imprisoned for this".
(Unioneonline/D)