27/02/2024 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The PACE General Rapporteur on human rights defenders and whistle-blowers, Emanuelis Zingeris (Lithuania, EPP/CD), and PACE General Rapporteur for political prisoners, Thórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), have reacted to today’s judgment of a court in Moscow, sentencing Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Memorial, the prominent Russian human rights group and Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate, to 2,5 years’ imprisonment on politically motivated charges of “repeatedly discrediting the Russian armed forces”.
“The brutal war unleashed by Putin’s regime in Ukraine is not only mass murder of people and destruction of the infrastructure, economy, and cultural sites of this wonderful country. (…) It is also a severe blow to the future of Russia. (...) The country, which moved away from communist totalitarianism thirty years ago, is now pushed back into totalitarianism, but this time into a fascist totalitarianism." These words were published by Oleg Orlov on his Facebook page in November 2022 and, today, led to his conviction and sentencing to a prison term. We are appalled by this decision, which was rendered days after the death of Alexei Navalny in a Russian modern-day gulag and on the ninth anniversary of Boris Nemtsov’s assassination.
Oleg Orlov has dedicated his life to defending human rights and assisting victims of political repression. Today, he has become a political prisoner himself. Not even the Soviet Union dared to prosecute Mr Orlov for his staunch criticism of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. What further proof of Russia’s return to totalitarianism is needed than the outrageous decision to imprison Oleg Orlov for expressing his objection against the indefensible invasion of Ukraine? It is an affront to fundamental freedoms and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
The Parliamentary Assembly will not forget about political prisoners in Russia and Belarus. We will continue to speak up for all those who are imprisoned for expressing their opinions and advocating for the values that the Council of Europe stands for. We call for an immediate release Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, Oleg Orlov, Ales Bialatski, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, Maria Kalesnikava and other political prisoners.”