Human rights defenders report harsh sentences to men for leaving military units without permissions

Leaving a military unit without permission by a mobilized man is regarded as a crime, and there is a tendency towards tougher punishment. When commenting on the sentence of mobilized Adam Ivanov, convicted by a military court in Nalchik for leaving his military unit without permission, human rights defenders have noted that courts more often sentence deserters to five or more years of imprisonment.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that a court found Adam Ivanov, a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria, guilty of evading military service and sentenced him to 5.5 years of imprisonment. The man left his military unit three times: on the first two occasions he was at home, and on the third he cared for his father in a hospital.

Sergey Krivenko*, the director of the human rights group “Citizen. Army. Right”*, emphasizes that there is no such crime with regard to military personnel as evasion of military service. “There is a crime of evasion of conscription for military service, and a criminal case can be instituted against a civilian who is called up for military service, but avoids it. And for military personnel, crimes are leaving a military unit without permission, desertion,” explained the human rights defender.

According to him, in Russia, the laws do not provide for criminal punishment for evading conscription for military mobilization. “When you receive a mobilization conscription notice, you may refuse military service, declare that you have anti-war beliefs and not go to military service. And there will be no punishment,” Sergey Krivenko* emphasized.

A military lawyer for the “Call to Conscience” coalition reports that courts pronounce very severe sentences for leaving military units without permissions: in almost half of the cases, the courts sentence defendants to imprisonment in a penal colony.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.