PRESS-RELEASE

Moscow, December 15, 2000

Declaration of Andrey Rodionov, deputy secretary of the ARA

On October 23, 2000 the acting prosecutor of the Timiryazevsky Interregional prosecutor's office, senior adviser to justice N.F.Smerdov approved the bill of indictment in connection with the criminal case N 188422 instituted against Ivan Andreevich Samarkin according to the art. 328.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. The bill of indictment written (though it should be more appropriate to call it "fabricated") by the senior investigator I.A.Prokopieva reads that the defendant didn't appear at the recruit depot on June 29, 2000 "without valid reason", though for that moment the complaint of Samarkin against the illegal decision of the draft commission was at the examination in the Timiryazevsky Intermunicipal Court and the decision to draft him had been passed three days before which actually deprived the draftee of the possibility to complaint against this decision in the court in due term. The "witnesses" in connection with the prosecution (employees of the military commissariat!) unanimously affirm that though

Ivan Samarkin had sent to the draft commission by mail his statement that he conscientiously objected, he said nothing of this convictions at the meeting of the draft comission (from this fact some of the "witnesses" concluded that the draftee agreed with the decision of the commission). It remains unclear, how many times should one present to the employee of the military commissariat his legitimate demands to make him understand at last their meaning? The investigator Prokopieva writes that "the investigators regard critically... the statements of Samarkin..." which is praiseworthy and indicates the professionalism of the employee of the prosecutor's office.

However, it arouses perplexity, why then are the statements of the "gentlemen in uniform" regarded by the investigators with a touching childish credulity, though it's very difficult to suspect these "witnesses" to be uninterested and unbiassed! "... the statements of I.A.Samarkin "that according to the Constitution he demands to perform the alternative civilian service instead of the military service" do not correspond to the proofs received in connection with the prosecution" - states the investigator, though no serious proof was produced in the bill that Ivan hadn't antimilitarist convictions. At the same time the investigator Prokopieva rejected the plead of the defendant's lawyer E.A.Raskevich to interrogate as a witness in connection with the prosecution S.E.Sorokin, the head of the public organization "Movement against the violence", of which Ivan is a member.

One gains the impression that the investigators decided beforehand (or received an order?) to consider Samarkin guilty and don't want to see any proofs of the opposite. It seems that for the prosecutor's office means nothing even the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of May 22, 1996 that no criminal prosecutions can be instituted against a person asserting in the court his legal right to the alternative civilian service.

The trial in connection with this case is scheduled for December 20. The Antimilitarist Radical Association will follow the developments closely and call all its adherents to support Ivan Samarkin in his stand against the state machine for his and our right!

For further information:

tel.: (095) 2081805, (902) 1165376;

www.ara.ru