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Amnesty: Belarusian conscientious objector jailed |
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02. Februar 2010 |
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Amnesty International has called on the Belarusian authorities to
release a conscientious objector, found guilty by the Minsk District
Court of "draft evasion" and sentenced to three months in prison on
Monday. Ivan Mikhailau had refused military service because bearing arms
contradicts his religious beliefs as an active member of the Messianic
Jewish community. He was arrested in the town of Salihorsk, south of
the capital, Minsk, on 15 December 2009. Amnesty International considers Ivan Mikhailau to be a prisoner of
conscience, detained for the peaceful expression of his beliefs.
Ivan Mikhailau’s lawyer told Amnesty International that his family
intends to appeal against the verdict. His detention since 15 December
counts towards his three-month sentence. He remains in the pre-trial
detention centre in Zhodino – a town about 50km north east of Minsk -
where he has been held since shortly after his arrest.
Military service is compulsory in Belarus for all males between the
ages of 18 and 27. Even though the Belarusian Constitution states that
citizens have a right to alternative civilian service, no such option
is provided for in practice.
The right to refuse military service for reasons of conscience is
inherent in the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion as
laid down in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR) to which Belarus is a party.
According to his lawyer, after being summoned to military service in
December 2008 Ivan Mikhailau told the Minsk district military that he
was unable to carry out military service for religious reasons. Instead
he requested to take part in civilian service as an alternative to
military service.
In January 2009 the authorities denied his request on the grounds that
an alternative civilian service does not exist. Ivan Mikhailau
approached the military authorities a second time asking if he could
substitute military service with service in the reserves. In June 2009
his request was again denied and the authorities then assigned Ivan
Mikhailau to full-time military service.
Amnesty International is calling on the Belarusian authorities to
immediately and unconditionally release Ivan Mikhailau. Furthermore,
the organization urges the authorities to ensure that Ivan Mikhailau
and other conscientious objectors are either absolved from military
service or permitted to wait until an alternative service is in place.
The organization urges the authorities to adopt a law that provides for
a genuine civilian alternative to military service and recalls that
Belarus is a state party to the ICCPR, and therefore obliged to
recognize the right to conscientious objection.
On 3 November 2006, the Human Rights Committee ruled that the
prosecution and conviction of two conscientious objectors by the
Republic of Korea for their refusal to perform compulsory military
service had breached Article 18 of the ICCPR as no civilian alternative
was available.
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