EXPRESS-CHRONICLE, NEWS DIGEST n.1800 (night edition)

23 November 1995, Thursday

EKATERINBURG. <01>

AN EKATERINBURG JUDGE HAS GIVEN A VERDICT IN FAVOUR OF A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR. On 22 November Evgeniya Vlasova, a judge of the Leninskiy district court, ruled that the refusal of the Leninskiy distict enlistment office to offer alternative civilian service to pacifist Vyacheslav Kozlov was illegal. A week earlier the court session had been postponed for the contesting parties to assemble additional evidence. Vyacheslav Kozlov was obliged to provide documentary evidence of his pacifist convictions, and Colonel Mily, representing the enlistment office, was called upon to show the normative acts that permit employees of the enlistment office to ignore article 59-3 of the Russian Constitution, which stipulates the right to alternative service. During the proceedings, the arguments of the military were found to be unconvincing. It was an unprecedented outcome for such cases in Ekaterinburg.

About one year ago a case of a conscientious objector was examined in the Verkh-Isetskiy court of Ekaterinburg, which refused to grant the demands of the conscript on the basis that there is no law on alternative service. The conscript appealed to a higher court. It is possible that the Kozlov case will also be protracted, since the military prosecutor intends to appeal against the decision of the district court. But the representative of the enlistment office, Mily, declared that he is satisfied with the decision, since in principle he has nothing against alternative service.