Verdict against Oleg Orlov* upheld

The court dismissed the cassation appeal filed by the defence of Oleg Orlov* and upheld the sentence of the human rights defender in the case on discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.

At a hearing in the Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction, Katerina Tertukhina, an advocate of Oleg Orlov*, the co-chair of the “Memorial” Centre for Human Rights Defence*, supported the arguments of the cassation appeal and requested the court to cancel the sentence, which violates not only the law, but also basic logic, the “Memorial” Centre for Human Rights Defence* reports today.

“The first instance court and the court of appeal managed to pronounce the guilty verdict without assessing any of the significant arguments submitted by the defence. Instead of basing their conclusions on evidence, the judges referred to non-existent circumstances in the expert opinions, which simply do not exist in the case. The motive of political hatred has been established by the court with reference to the expert opinion. However, at the same time, no documents examined, nor even the interrogation of experts, contain a single word about the motive of hatred in the actions of Oleg Orlov*! Meanwhile, they also found in the Oleg Orlov*’s actions “ideological hostility” to a certain social group, which no one defined, described, or even tried to prove. Nevertheless, the mentioned motive became the basis for a real deprivation of liberty,” said the defender when speaking in court.

In addition, the advocate emphasized that Oleg Orlov* “was literally taken out of the country without a single official document, simply presented with a fait accompli.” “Perhaps, in this case, the authorities decided to show consistency: if the sentence is illegal, then the release should not be distinguished by formalities? The justice requires the law, evidence, and observance of basic human rights. I ask the court to cancel the sentence and demonstrate that the Russian justice acts according to the law,” the advocate claimed.

However, the judge pronounced the decision: to dismiss the cassation appeal and leave the sentence in the criminal case against Oleg Orlov* unchanged.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 15, 2025 at 11:00 аm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

**As reported on the website of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the reason for including on March 1, 2024, the unregistered “Memorial” Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD) into the register of foreign agents was the dissemination of “inaccurate information aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian Federation, as well as the Russian Armed Forces.”