Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov has been sentenced to two and a half years in a prison colony, his organization, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Memorial, announced Tuesday.

Orlov was convicted under Article 280.3 of the Russian Criminal Code, which prohibits the discrediting of the Russian armed forces. The charges arose from an article he published last year in which he described the war in Ukraine as a blow to Russia’s future and referred to the Kremlin leadership as “fascist.” In March 2022, in the weeks following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian lawmakers fast-tracked amendments to the criminal code imposing steep prison terms for words or actions seen as discrediting the military. A hallmark of politically motivated Russian criminal legislation, these amendments were worded vaguely enough to ensnare everything from direct and public criticism to seemingly innocuous activities.

Memorial, the organization Orlov co-chairs, which advocates for victims of political repression, decried article 280.3 as: “outright and shameful censorship, the singular goal [of which] is to persecute people for opinions different from the official one, and to suppress any criticism of the government authorities.” According to Human Rights Watch, in the first three weeks following the passage of the relevant amendments, Russian authorities brought upwards of 60 administrative cases for violations thereof and at least six criminal cases. According to data published by Russian law enforcement monitoring organization OVD Info, as of November 2023, more than 160 people had been criminally prosecuted under article 280.3.

According to Memorial, during Orlov’s trial, state prosecutors accused Orlov of “ideological hostility against traditional Russian spiritual, moral, and patriotic values.”

The organization stated in response: “The fact of the matter is, Oleg Orlov is a patriot of Russia … However, in modern Russia, everything is upside down; war is peace, calls for peace are a crime, and urging caution about the state cultivating violence is considered a hate crime.”

The sentencing provoked the ire of scores of human rights and advocacy groups around the globe.

A coalition of 32 Russian organizations, Memorial included, wrote:

[Orlov has] dedicated his life to documenting human rights violations and helping victims of abuses. His ‘crime’ boils down to protesting against the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine amid an escalation of repression within Russia. The Orlov trial is a mockery of justice and a blow to the fundamental right to free expression.

Human Rights Watch decried the trial as a “sham trial,” with Europe and Central Asia Director Tanya Lokshina stating:

Orlov’s trial was pure Kafka, so it is fitting that he chose to read the author’s iconic novel, The Trial, in protest during the court hearings. … This is another grim day for Russia.

In a closing statement republished by The Moscow Times, Orlov painted a grim picture of life under the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin:

There is no artistic genre where free artistic expression is possible; there are no spheres of academic humanities that are free; there isn’t even private life. … We are being punished for taking it upon ourselves to criticize the authorities. In today’s Russia, this is absolutely forbidden. Of course, deputies, investigators, prosecutors and judges never say it openly. They hide it under the absurd and illogical formulations of the so-called new laws, indictments and sentences. But this is the truth.

Orlov’s sentencing comes amid a sprawling crackdown on dissent in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and in the immediate aftermath of the Feb. 16 death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony. In his closing words, Orlov summoned Navalny’s memory, urging supporters to keep fighting despite the quashing of their rights:

In recent days, people have been detained, punished, and even imprisoned just because they went to monuments to the victims of political repression to honor the memory of the murdered Alexei Navalny. A remarkable man, brave and honest, who under incredibly difficult conditions did not lose his optimism and faith in the future of our country. … We remember Alexei’s appeal: “Don’t give up.” I would add to that: Don’t lose heart, and do not lose optimism. Truth is on our side.