Human Rights Information Agency "Express-Chronicle"

English Weekly News Digest

October 28 1996

(E-C) On 22 October the Moscow district court of St.Petersburg ruled in favour of a conscientious objector against military service. On 4 April this year Grigory Blashko, a resident of St.Petersburg's Moscow district, declared to the enlistment commission that he is a parishioner of the Church of Christ and that performing military service contradicts his religious convictions. Despite this, the enlistment commission resolved to conscript Blashko. He initiated a lawsuit, based on article 59 part 3 of the Russian constitution, which guarantees citizens the right to perform alternative [civilian] service. The first court session in the case was held on 1 October. During the second session, on 22 October under the chairmanship of Judge Galina Kireykova, the court ruled to quash the decision of the enlistment commission of St.Petersburg's Moscow district on Blashko's conscription until the adoption of a law "On alternative civilian service."