SUPREME SPECIALIZED COURT REQUIRES REVIEW OF SENTENCE OF CONSCRIPTED BELIEVER
Institute of Religious Liberty, 7 October 2015
The Supreme Specialized Court of Ukraine issued yet another decision in favor of a believer who had been sentenced to two years incarceration because of the impossibility of performing military service because of religious convictions.
Thanks to this ruling of the court, the believer will be released from a SIZO [investigation cell] and again placed under house arrest for the time of a reconsideration of the case in an appellate court, the Institute of Religious Liberty [IRL] reports.
As the IRL reported, on 13 March 2015 a Vladimirets district court of Rovno province, under the chairmanship of Judge V.A.Porovsky, in criminal case No. 556/127/15-K sentenced to two years incarceration (without mitigation) a believer who reported the impossibility of his performing military service on the basis of his religious convictions.
While doing so, the judge referred in the text of the sentence to the fact that "the accused did not present to the court evidence of the fact that a member of the church of KhVE (Christians of Evangelical Faith) cannot bear arms and defend the motherland." At the same time, the deputy military commissar of the Vladimirets ORVK [Unified District Military Commissariat] for mobilization reported in the court session that he was not authorized to engage "in the return home of members of the KhVE and other sectarians," since this is done by the provincial military commissariat.
"It is evident that the representation of a member of the church of KhVE in the negative image of a 'sectarian,' not only by an official of the ORVK but even in the text of the judicial decision, made his constitutional right to alternative (noncombat) service of secondary consideration," Maksim Vasin, the executive director of the Institute of Religious Liberty, commented regarding this sentence.
Moreover, the appellate court of Rovno province, while reviewing this criminal case on the basis of an appeal from the accused, said that he had failed to comply with the requirements of part 2 of article 9 of the Ukrainian law "On alternative (noncombat) service." However, this article does not directly pertain to cases of conscription and was applied by military commissariats by analogy, and thus nonobservance of this procedure cannot be the basis for criminal punishment, the IRF expert thinks.
In the end, the Supreme Specialized Court of Ukraine, on review of civil and criminal cases on 29 September 2015 in criminal proceeding No. 12014180050000848 ordered the cancellation of the decision of the appellate court of Rovno province and sent the case for a new consideration in the appellate court.
The basic reason for such a decision was that the appellate court had not examined in the proper way all of the circumstances of the case and the arguments of the defense. In particular, it did not take into account the state of health of the defendant and the practice of the European Court for Human Rights in cases regarding the right to refuse military service on the basis of religious considerations and the substitution for it of alternative (civilian) service.
A lawyer of the juridical center Law and Justice, Dmitry Slipenko, who defended the believer in this case, considers the decision of the Supreme Specialized Court of Ukraine to be expected and just.
"The appellate court substantially violated the requirements of criminal procedural law since it did not examine the arguments of the accused to the effect that he did not have the intent to avoid the summons to service. Being a believing person, he simply tried to take advantage of his constitutional right to substitute alternative (noncombat) service for his military obligation at the time of mobilization. During the second consideration, the appellate court will be forced to take into account these and other directives of the Supreme Specialized Court of Ukraine and, as expected, acquit the accused," the attorney said.
We recall that this year the Supreme Specialized Court of Ukraine, in another criminal case, confirmed the right of believers to alternative service on the basis of religious convictions, even in the time of mobilization. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 October 2015)
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