A Russian human rights activist, jailed for calling Russia a fascist state and for criticising the war against Ukraine, has compared the country’s judicial system to that of Nazi Germany.
Seventy-one-year-old Oleg Orlov quoted the assessment by Telford Taylor, US prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, that the Nazis totally destroyed justice and law during their rule.
Orlov was speaking by video link from custody in the central city of Syzran during an appeal against his two-and-a-half-year sentence handed down five months ago, after his conviction for calling Russia a fascist state and for criticising the war against Ukraine. He lost the appeal.
The BBC reports that Orlov told the Moscow city court in his final statement that he regretted nothing and would not repent.
“I’m in the necessary place at the necessary time,” he said. “When there are mass repressions in the country, I am with those who are being persecuted.”
He quoted Taylor’s statement that “(the Nazis) distorted, perverted and in the end achieved the total destruction of justice and law. They made the judicial system an integral part of the dictatorship”.
Orlov added: “These words can be uttered now by any Russian political prisoner. These words are surprisingly appropriate to characterise the current state of the Russian judicial system.”
