Russian rights campaigner Oleg Orlov refused to testify Friday in what he called an unfair trial where he is charged with speaking out against the Ukraine offensive.
"I refuse to testify. I reserve the right to only say the final word, since I do not consider this court to be just ... I do not admit guilt. I do not understand how you can prosecute someone for an expressed opinion," Orlov told a Moscow court.
Orlov, the 70-year-old human rights campaigner and co-chair of the Nobel Prize winning Memorial group, who is charged with "discrediting" the Russian army, appears in court in Moscow on February 16, 2024.
Orlov was originally fined by a court in October after a first trial, in a lighter-form of punishment that surprised many, including himself.
But prosecutors then changed their minds, citing an "excessively light" punishment that did not correspond to the "danger to the public" that they said Orlov initially was.
IOL