(Moscow, May 14, 1997) - On May 13, 1997 the Mescanskij inter-municipal court of Moscow refused Sergej Dolzhanskij, a member of ARA, in his right to replace military service by alternative civilian service.

On October 17, 1996 in spite of his requests to grant him possibility to fulfil alternative civilian service instead of military service, Sergej Dolzhanskij has been drafted to the military service according the decision taken by military enlistment commission. Being not agree with this decision, Sergej Dolzhanskij complained to the court.

On November 26, 1996 Mrs. Irina Shikanova, judge of Mescanskij inter-municipal court of Moscow, decided to satisfy Dolzhanskij's appeal. However later, after the protest by Mescanskij district prosecutor, this court decision has been abolished by Moscow City Court and the suite has been directed again to the district court.

Yesterday, Mrs. O. Sulejmanova, a judge in the same court, has taken decision to refuse Dolzhanskij in satisfaction of his complaint. She demonstrated by this way that every citizen's right on conscientious objection guaranteed by the Art. 59.3 of Russian Constitution is less important than interests of Defence Ministry.

There is a controversial situation developing in the field of guaranteeing of constitutional rights on conscientious objection. While there is known no one case of sentencing a conscientious objection to prison term, at the same time become more and more often cases of negative court decisions on civil complaints of conscripts. There is nothing strange here. Actually, Russia has taken obligations to guarantee the conscientious objection right during its entering Council of Europe. Therefore, from one hand there is everything being undertaken in order to convince international public opinion in good will intention of Russian authorities. From the other hand, there is everything undertaken in order not to allow citizens to forget where they still live in reality.