It’s hard to believe, but the Russian “justice” system has just outdone itself.

Here’s a headline from AP News dated December 14, 2023:

“Court voids fine given to Russian activist for criticizing war . . .” Gee, that’s sounds great, so far.

“ . . . and sends case back to prosecutors.” Oh, no! Why would they do that?

Let’s look at what happened to get Mr. Orlov in front of the court in the first place. To begin with, this pleasant-looking, grandfatherly gentleman is co-chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial. But he was charged and convicted of publicly discrediting the Russian military when he posted an article on Facebook criticizing the invasion of Ukraine.

Oh, that’s not good. In fact, that’s now a serious criminal offense in Russia; one simply does not criticize the military, the government, or any member thereof. Not if one values one’s freedom, one doesn’t.

Anyway, Mr. Orlov must have thought he’d gotten off easy when a lower court simply fined him 150,000 rubles — the equivalent of about $1,500 — instead of a lengthy prison term such as others have received for similar infractions. But that’s still a lot of money, so Mr. Orlov and his attorneys appealed the sentence. And that was when they found out — and here’s where the WOW! factor comes in — that the prosecution had also appealed it, demanding that the fine be set aside and the sentence be changed to three years in prison. Their reason? The prosecutors said that investigators “failed to take into account Orlov’s motive.” [Dasha Litvinova, AP News, Dec. 14, 2023.] Thus, while the conviction would stand, the severity of the punishment was considered insufficient.

Now, I personally have never heard of a prosecutor appealing a conviction . . . much less overruling a judge. But I’m an American, and we have legal protections against things like double jeopardy. In the Russian judicial system . . . well, not so much.

The Moscow City Court unsurprisingly sided with the prosecution and remanded the case — not to the lower court, but to the prosecutors! — “for revision,” thus nullifying the earlier verdict and canceling the fine. Mr. Orlov is quoted as having said in court:

“In my view, the authorities are afraid. So afraid of the free will of the people that they destroyed the institution of elections, that they prohibited holding any kind of demonstrations for various bogus reasons, so much so that they imprison people over words.” [Quoted by AP News from independent Russian news site Mediazona.]

Mr. Orlov is said to have brought a bag of personal belongings with him to court in case he was jailed immediately. Because that’s what you do in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

The report ends there. I assume there will be a second trial for Mr. Orlov, the outcome of which is pretty much a foregone conclusion. I’m sure he’ll have that bag with him then, too.

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Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/20/23