(Moscow, 24 July 1991) - 21 year old conscientious objector Aleksandr Pronozin, member of Radical Party and War Resisters' International (WRI) was detained today in the office of district criminal investigator and lodged into the Moscow Kascenko mental hospital.

Pronozin refused military service because of his non-violent and anti-militarist convictions at the beginning of 1989. At 3 of January 1990 the criminal case No 65707 "on the fact of the evasion from the military service" (Article 80 of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation) was initiated. One month ago the accusation was officially delivered against him. Aleksandr Pronozin is one of the most famous activists for right of conscientious objection in the USSR.

The psychiatric examination is the obligatory procedure while criminal investignation on the Article 80. This examination must answer, is a conscript able for the military service or not. If during the examination he will be recognized as a person able for military service, he can sentensed to 5 years of prison (however in the last time usually sentence in such cases is one or two years of prison probationally).

According the words of his criminal investigator, Aleksandr Pronozin will stay in the mental hospital not less than three weeks.