Obninsk, November 25, 1999 - The trial of a member of the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA) for "evading military service" (Art. 328 of the Russian Criminal Code) has just finished in Obninsk (Kaluga region).

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". Noverovskii 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.

26 years old mathematician Dmitrii Neverovskii has been fighting in the court for the right to perform the alternative civilian service instead of the military service since 1997. In his last word, pronounced today at the trial, Neverovskii has confirmed once again that he conscientiously objects and does not want to perform military service in the Russian Army that continues the criminal Chechen war. Today, in the court room, Dmitrii Neverovskii has joined the Transnational Radical Party.

Declaration of Nikolai Khramov, ARA Secretary and counsellor of Dmitrii Neverovskii:

"What has happened today in the Obninsk court room has nothing to do with Law and Justice. Mister Makarovskii who has been carrying out the duties of a Judge for two days, knows well that he has just sent to the prison an innocent man. Neverovskii was tried not for his actions or for his convictions, but because the State Duma has not adopted an alternative civilian service law yet. The grounds for such a severe sentence are clear: they want to intimidate other conscripts in Obninsk where the number of conscientious objectors is nearly as great as the number of the persons to be enlisted - about one hundred.

The trail of our comrade Dmitrii Neverovskii is the second case of imprisonment of a conscientious objector since 1992 when the right to conscientiously object was secured in the Russian Constitution. 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.

There is no doubt that today's verdict is going to be recalled by a cassation instance. However, today Obninsk has showed to the whole world that Russia is a country where a man defending his constitutional right to conscientiously object risks his freedom."

Declaration of Tat'yana Kotlyar, mother of Dmitrii Neverovskii, Vice president of the ARA General Council, candidate to the City Duma in the 85-th electoral district ("Right Force Union"), deputy of the Obninsk City Assembly:

"This verdict has proved once again that my son in an honest man. His complaint against the decision of the Enlistment Commission has been examined twice at cassation by the Regional Court of Kaluga. At his second trial he could have just declared: "I am a pacifist" - and the trial would be won. But did not do it and preferred to tell the truth: he refuses to perform the military service not because of his political convictions, but because he thinks that the Chechen war is criminal."