Background Release

Moscow, December 2, 1999

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION:

THE CASE OF DMITRII NEVEROVSKII

Dmitrii Neverovskii, 26, mathematician, since 1996 has been taking an active part in the activity of the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA) and of the Obninsk Regional Right-Defence Group (ORRDG). Because of his antimilitarist convictions he has the right to perform the alternative civilian service instead of the military service in the Russian Armed Forces, according to Art. 59.3. of the Russian Constitution and Art. 1.5 of the Military Duty and Military Service Federal Law.

In 1995, when he was a student, Dmitrii Neverovskii has left the military Department of his Institute because of the Chechen war. In 1997 he presented at the Enlistment Commission his application for the alternative civilian service and appealed to the Court against the decision to call him up. His trial has been going on till 1999, because Kaluga Regional Court has revoked the decision of the Obninsk City Court several times. In 1999 the Regional Court refused to satisfy his appeal while Military Commissar of Obninsk colonel Podgurskii asked to institute a criminal inquiry against Dmitrii Neverovskii. Earlier the Military Commissar of Obninsk had asked the Prosecutor and the Federal Security Service to institute a criminal inquiry against Neverovskii's mother, Tat'yana Kotlyar, leader of the Regional Right-Defence Group and deputy of the City Assembly. Tat'yana Kotlyar helps the draftees defend their rights, including the right to conscientiously object.

On October 27, 1999, the Office of Public Prosecutor of Obninsk, Kaluga region, instituted a criminal inquiry against Dmitrii Neverovskii, according to Art. 328.1 of the Russian Criminal Code ("evading military service").

On November 25, 1999, the City Court of Obninsk, Kaluga region, declared Dmitrii Neverovskii guilty of "evading military service". The President of the Obninsk City Court Yakov Makarovskii, who has been carrying this lawsuit personally, has passed the sentence of guilty: "two years of imprisonment". Neverovskii was arrested in the court room and was brought away with his handcuffs on. The Military Commissar of Obninsk colonel Podgurskii, present in the court as a witness, has publicly delivered a summons to another witness, a friend of Neverovskii, Ivan Klevakichev.

The penalty was exactly the one claimed by the Prosecutor of Obninsk Mikhail Narusov, who has personally supported at the trail the state prosecution and has been insisting on as severe penalty as possible in order to give an example to hundreds of conscientious objectors in Obninsk.

Till now the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Kaluga region has never instituted criminal inquiries against those conscientious objectors that first applied for the alternative civilian service and after that appealed to the court against the decision to call them up. There are about 100 identical cases in the region. The statement of the Constitutional Court of May 22, 1999, says that "the actions of the citizens executing their constitutional right to the alternative civilian service cannot be considered an evasion of the military service without valid grounds, therefore, they have no features of the crime provided by the legislation".

Dmitrii Neverovskii is the first conscientious objector in Kaluga region to be prosecuted and, since 1993, the second conscientious objector in Russia to be sentenced to an imprisonment for his conscientious objection. The first case dates back to 1997 - in Sochi a Jehovah testimony, Vadim Nazarov, was sentenced to 1,5 years of imprisonment and released one month later, when the Regional Court of Krasnodar recalled the verdict of the city court. In other criminal cases of conscientious objectors we know about they were either acquitted (Vadim Hesse, 1996, City Court of Noginsk, Moscow Region; Aleksandr Seryogin, 1996, Moscow City Court; Aleksandr Egorov, November 22, 1999, City Court of Slantsevsk, Leningrad region) or the case was returned to the investigation and closed (Aleksei Bykov, 1999, Intermunicipal Court Golovinskii, Moscow and others). Several criminal cases of conscientious objectors are under examination (Vasilii Bazhenov, Moscow; Arkadii Zarakovskii, Novgorod).

There are valid grounds to consider that the unjust verdict of Dmitrii Neverovskii has two objectives:

1. To frighten other conscripts in Kaluga region where actually about 100 people conscientiously object.

2. To squeeze on the mother of Dmitrii Neverovskii - Tat'yana Kotlyar, candidate to the next State Duma (Right Forces Union).

Now the defence of Dmitrii Neverovskii - Tat'yana Kotlyar (deputy of the City Assembly of Obninsk, vice President of the ARA General Council) and Nikolai Khramov (Secretary of the ARA) have lodged appeals to the Court Collegium on Criminal Cases of Kaluga Regional Court and to the Prosecutor of Kaluga Region, asking him to revoke this unjust verdict immediately.

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Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA)

Phone: +7-095-2081805, 2084902, 9281401

Fax: +7-095-2081805

mailto:ara@glasnet.ru

http://www.ara.ru