The Investigative Committee completed a repeated investigation into the case of Memorial co-chairman Oleg Orlov, accused of « discrediting”the army. This was reported by CHR “Memorial.”
A criminal case was opened against Orlov because of an anti-war article “They wanted fascism. They got it.» The material itself was published in French in the publication Mediapart, and later the human rights activist posted its translation into Russian on his Facebook.
After a re-investigation of the case, aggravating circumstances were added to the charges against Orlov — thus, according to the investigation, the co-chairman of Memorial published an anti-war article, motivated by hostility “against traditional Russian spiritual, moral and patriotic values” and hatred of Russian military personnel.
Three examinations were carried out as part of the case. The author of the last of them, Maria Zueva, a specialist at the forensic center of the main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow, came to the conclusion that Orlov’s text contains statements with a negative assessment of Russian military personnel. In her opinion, Orlov also spoke negatively about Vladimir Putin.
In addition, Zueva believes that in his article the human rights activist made a negative assessment of the “spiritual, moral and patriotic values of the people of Russia.” To a direct question from investigator Ilya Savchenko about whether Orlov’s text contained “statements that negatively assess the spiritual, moral and patriotic values of the people of Russia,” Zueva answered positively.
“The presented text talks about the predominance of material interests, benefits <…> fear of change <…> lack of freedom of speech <…> "false" patriotism of the Russian people <…> These statements are included in the semantic field of spiritual, moral and patriotic values, in the context they have a negative connotation, therefore their use is a means of expressing a negative assessment, including the spiritual, moral and patriotic values of the people of Russia,” Memorial quotes Zueva’s conclusion.
Orlov himself noted that it is not clear to him on what basis the motive of hatred towards the “social group of military personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation” is attributed to him. Moreover, according to him, it is not clear who the investigation includes in this group — whether it includes mobilized people or, for example, prisoners recruited to the front from the colonies. “I don’t understand at all what ‘ideological hostility against traditional Russian spiritual, moral and patriotic values’ is,” the human rights activist added.
Appeal in the case of Memorial co-chairman Orlov. The court returned the case to the prosecutor's office
On October 11, the judge of the Golovinsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Orlov to a fine of 150 thousand rubles, finding him guilty of repeatedly “discrediting” the army. Later, the prosecutor's office appealed the verdict, demanding that the human rights activist be sentenced to three years in prison.
On December 14, during a hearing in the Moscow City Court, prosecutors demanded that the case materials be returned to the pre-trial stage, since, according to representatives of the department, in the case the motive of political and ideological hatred was missed. The court agreed and returned the materials for a re-investigation.