A series of eight contemporary documentaries. 2: The Orlov Defence
In April 1977 a long-distance call from Moscow was put through to a London barrister. In the 15 seconds before she was cut off by the KGB a Russian woman begged the lawyer to undertake the defence of her husband. His name was Professor Yuri Orlov , held incommunicado in Lefortovo Prison on unspecified charges.
John MacDonald , Qc, accepted the unique brief, and this film documentary is the story of how he, a British lawyer, unfamiliar with Russian and the Russian legal system, set out to defend a client he had never seen, and to whom the authorities would allow no access.
YURI ORLOV is a Russian dissident and champion of Human Rights. The story of his defence is told at a time when the USSR has just squashed all attempts to condemn her human rights record at the Belgrade Conference. Orlov - held in defiance of his country's own laws - now awaits the inevitable show-trial and punishment.
Producer ROGER MILLS
Director mark ANDERSON