PRESNENSKII INTERMUNICIPAL COURT WILL EXAMINE THE COMPLAINT OF JOHN TSATURYAN, A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR, ON JULY 23

Moscow, July 20, 1999

On Friday, July 23, Presnenskii Intermunicipal Court of Moscow (Zoologicheskaya ul., 20, room 32) will examine for the second time the complaint of John Tsarutyan, a conscientious objector and a member of the Radical Party and of the ARA, against the actions of the Enlistment Commission which on April 22, 1997 rejected his application for the alternative civilian service instead of the military service.

On January 14, 1999 the previous decision of Presnenskii Court of November 17, 1997 rejecting the compliant of Tsarutyan against the Enlistment Commission was appealed against by V.M. Zhuykov, the Vice President of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, within the framework of Directorate of Public Prosecutors and was to be examined for the second time at the same Court by a different board of Judges.

Statement of Nikolai Khramov, Secretary of the ARA:

"In the last years practically all the decisions of Moscow Court concerning the complaints of conscientious objectors were not in favor of the conscripts, to tell the truth, in fact these verdicts roughly violated the Russian Constitution and the constitutional rights of the Russian citizens. A great merit in this field was rendered by the President of the Moscow City Court Zoya Korneva. An unprecedented decision of the Supreme Court to protest one of these illegal verdicts in principle creates a new situation. We hope that on Friday the Judges will finally stop glancing back at their chiefs from the Palace of Justice in Preobrazhenskaya square and will pay their attention to three articles of the Constitution: Art. 59.3 (the right to replace the military service by the alternative civilian service); Art. 18 (the rights and freedom of a citizen have an immediate validity); Art. 29.3 (no one can be compelled to express his convictions or to deny them). With our presence at the Court building and in the Court

room we will remind to the Judges that they have no other master but the Law and the Right".

To manifest their support to John Tsaturyan and to other Russian conscientious objectors the militants of the Radical Party and of the ARA will hold a manifestation at the building of the Presnenskii Court since 9:30.