Homel: draftee Yauhen Yakavenka fined
On 11 February Alena Dzichkouskaya, Judge of the Savetski district court in Homel, fined draftee Yauhen Yakavenka 175 000 rubles (about $60) for non-coming to ‘drafting measures’ on 29 February without a good excuse, in which he was accused by the city draft board.
Yauhen Yakavenka, 25, refuses to perform military services on conscientious reasons. On 2 February 2010 he lodged the third request to be assigned to alternative civilian service. Yakavenka also refuses to accept writs from the draft board as they are written in the Russian language.
The trial was attended by about 20 journalists, human rights defenders and representatives of the civil campaign For Alternative Civilian Service.
The judge also granted Yakavenka’s petition for interpreter’s services. Bear in mind that on 1 February the Minsk district court found another conscientious objector, Ivan Mikhailau, guilty of evasion from military services and punished him with three months of arrest.
Since 1994, the right to alternative service is enshrined in the Constitution. On 26 May 2000 the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus adopted decision #P-98/2000 On certain questions of realization of Article 57 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, from which it follows that the Parliament was obliged to work out and adopt the law on alternative civilian service. However, the law still hasn’t been adopted.
