Rights defenders assess progress of Orlov's trial

Oleg Orlov, a co-chairman of the "Memorial" Centre for Human Rights Defence, accused of discrediting the Russian Army, considered it important to add the documents of the UN General Assembly to the case files. Yan Rachinsky is confident that the prosecution's arguments are based only on a poorly conducted expertise.

At the session of the Golovinsky District Court of Moscow on the Orlov's case, the judge has rejected the defence's request to exclude the linguistic expertise of Orlov's article from the list of proofs. However, the court has granted the request to attach the resolutions of the UN General Assembly to the case files, as well as Orlov's characteristics drawn up by his colleagues. Oleg Orlov has explained that human rights defenders are not enemies of the state, but are obliged to criticize it if it violates human rights; he has recalled his activities in Chechnya and Ingushetia.

Oleg Orlov has noted that because of the trial, he was unable to pay due attention to his main work of the "Hot Spots" programme; in particular, he could not visit the North-Caucasian region. Meanwhile, Oyub Titiev, a human rights defender, has noted that the work of the programme continues.

The judge's satisfying the defence's motions in itself does not show anything, Alexander Verkhovsky, the head of the SOVA Centre*, has noted. In his opinion, the prosecution has decided everything for itself.

In his turn, Yan Rachinsky, the head of the International Society "Memorial"**, believes that apart from a poorly done expertise, the prosecution has no arguments. "This is just an untenable attempt to use vague wording of a criminal article on discrediting the Russian Army," he has stated, believing that the adding of above documents to the case files can play a role.

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

**On December 29, 2021, by the decision of the Moscow City Court, the Russian legal entities of the "International Memorial" and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" were liquidated. Activists of the organizations have reported that both organizations will continue their work without forming legal entities.