Source: Memorial on X
On the eve of the prisoner exchange at the beginning of August, it was suggested to human rights defender Oleg Orlov that he sign an appeal for a pardon. He refused. This happened a few days before the exchange while Oleg Orlov was still in Pre-trial Detention Centre Number Two in the town of Syzran in Samara region, southwest Russia. Prison officials urged him to write a request for a pardon addressed to President Putin. Orlov refused. He was not asked his consent to be included in the prisoner exchange. We publish Oleg Orlov’s account of the amnesty request.
Around midday on 23 July, as I was sitting relaxing after time in the bathhouse, the door of my cell opened unexpectedly, and a guard called me out of the hut in an unusual manner: “Come with me, there’s something we have to talk about.” I was led into the warden’s office, where he suddenly greeted me, holding out his arm for a handshake (which was very unusual). Then he said: “We know and understand everything about you, we know a great deal.”
Well, I think, he is going to recruit me. But in that case why not one of the prison investigators? And then he says out-of-the-blue that the detention centre had that day received orders from Moscow via Samara to have me sign an official request for a pardon addressed to the President. He says they have reason to believe that such a request will be viewed favourably: “You do understand that it is only you who is getting this offer, and no one else here. That kind of thing doesn’t happen just like that.”
He gives me a blank piece of paper and explains: “Just write out a request in your own words for a pardon in the name of the president. There’s no time to think about it. We are expected to have the document signed by you and to have sent it off by the end of the working day.”
“Well then,” I say, “take me back to my cell, I’ll think about it there.”
And I came to a decision: no matter what this was, I would not write this request. I will not allow an appeal for a pardon to be made in my name. And who did they want me to write to? To Putin!”
20 minutes passed, and the door opened: “Please give us the request.”
I answer: “I’ve decided not to write it.”
The door closed. It opened again 10 minutes later: “Come with me. We have to talk.”
We went back into the office. Three prison officers arrived, led by the head of the department for regulations and oversight.
“Why don’t you want to write it?” I explained to him, tried to at least. Their reaction was odd: “In a way, we understand you. In another, we don’t. Well fine, it’s your choice. But we need to report today on what’s happened, please explain your decision and the reasons for it on video.”
What I said went something like this:
“I refuse to sign because my sentence was unlawful, I am being held in violation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, I do not consider myself to have committed a crime. From my point of view, to request a pardon would be an indirect admission of guilt. But I am innocent. Deciding whether to write a request for a pardon is up to the individual. In this respect, I am not prepared to ask anyone to do anything or to discuss others’ decisions. “
Translated by Oscar Seecharan
