Minsk Region Court upholds drafting of Pavel Siarhei
The panel of judges
referred to the absence of laws on alternative civilian service and
the groundlessness of the draftee's statements that he couldn't serve
in the army because of his religious views.
Pavel Siarhei is
an activist of the "Young Front", expelled from Maladzechna
Polytechnic College after serving an arrest term in the delinquents'
isolation center in Akrestsin Street. Last year he started receiving
summons from the military enlistment office. He filed there a
petition to be assigned to alternative civilian service, in which he
also stated that he couldn't serve in the army among Communist
symbols (hammer and sickle), under which Christians were persecuted
during the Soviet rule. However, the special commission at the
military enlistment office considered this demand as groundless and
refused to assign him to alternative service.
The youngster
applied to Maladzechna District Court, which upheld the ruling of the
military enlistment office. On 28 February Minsk Region Court
considered Siarhei's appeal against the verdict of Maladechna
District Court and left it unchanged. In the conclusion signed by the
head of Minsk Region Court U. Kraiko it is stated that there are no
laws in Belarus which would describe the legal order of alternative
civilian service. Pavel Siarhei's arguments that he cannot serve in
the army for religious reasons were found groundless, as far as they
were disproved by the testimony of the pastor of the church whose
parishioner Mr. Siarhei was.
At present Pavel Siarhei is
serving in a railway unit in Slutsk.
Bear in mind that the
right to alternative civilian service was introduced by the
Constitution of the Republic of Belarus back in 1994. However, no
special law has been adopted so far to regulate it. Belarusian MPs
may adopt it this year, as an appropriate norm stands in the schedule
of draft laws for 2013.