The court acquitted a member of the ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ community for refusing to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

A resident of the Borispol district of the Kiev region, after passing a medical examination, refused to accept a military draft notice from the military commissariat and did not appear at the training center at the appointed time.

In court, he presented a certificate stating that he is a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses community, whose followers are prohibited from handling weapons. Consequently, he applied for alternative service after being declared fit for military duty by the medical commission. However, the territorial recruitment center did not heed these requests.

The court ultimately acquitted the believer, recognizing that he had no intention of evading conscription, as he had offered to perform alternative service to the military authorities.

There are other precedents of acquittals in courts for those who evaded conscription.

On January 22, the Lviv Appellate Court overturned the punishment of a man who received three years for evasion in the first instance court (Article 336 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code).

He received a draft notice but did not appear at the military unit, for which he was sentenced in November. Two months later, during the appeal of the verdict, it was revealed that the convicted man was already serving in the military – his lawyer provided documentary evidence. As a result, the court overturned the decision of the first instance and acquitted the former draft dodger.

In other words, even if someone receives a prison sentence, they can join the army, and the conviction can be overturned.

In this specific case, the man was being mobilized into the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but he, already being convicted, volunteered to serve in the National Guard of Ukraine.

Another man in Ivano-Frankivsk was convicted of evading conscription but received a lenient sentence – three years with a one-year postponement of execution (meaning, the convicted person remains free subject to good behavior).

However, the prosecutor’s office decided to appeal the decision of the first instance court so that the man would receive a real sentence. However, while the case was under appeal, the defendant passed away.