Human Rights Information Agency "Express-Chronicle"

English Weekly News Digest

October 31 1996

MOSCOW (E-C) On 24 October the Cheremushkin court of Moscow issued its verdict in the case of Aleksandr Seregin, a member of the Anti-militarist Radical Association. Seregin, a conscientious objector against military service, was charged under article 80 of the RF Criminal Code ("Evasion of the call up for military service"). He was sentenced to two years deprivation of freedom, with a three year suspension of the sentence.

Nikolai Khramov, leader of the Anti-militarist Radical Association and Seregin's public defender, insisted on a not- guilty verdict and argued: "An idiotic situation has developed. The defendant is allowed not to serve in the army, since article 59 part 3 of the Russian Federation constitution guarantees him the right to perform alternative civilian service, but he has no right to do this service, since there is no law [regulating] it."

Examining the case, Judge Ivanov did not recognise Seregin's right to perform alternative civilian service, pointing to the absence of an appropriate statute.

At a press-conference on 29 October at the Russian-American Information Press Centre, Nikolai Khramov declared that "the verdict in the case of Aleksandr Seregin cannot but evoke a feeling of protest and bewilderment." Another speaker, State Duma deputy Valery Borshchyov argued that "today we are witnesses of an alarming fact - the legal path for refusing to perform military service has been blocked by the court, [and] what remains are bribes."