09.02.2010
Belarus: Conscientious objector jailed


Ivan Mikhailov, a Messianic Jew, has today (1 February) had a three-month
jail term imposed on him by a court in Belarus for refusing compulsory
military service. His brother-in-law told Forum 18 News Service that "The
sentence has nothing to do with justice." His lawyer, Svetlana Gorbatok,
argued that the absence of an Alternative Service Law is not a legal basis
for violating Mikhailov's rights. He has been in pre-trial detention since
15 December 2009, and must serve another six weeks unless he wins an appeal
he will make. Also present in court was Mikhail Pashkevich of 'For
Alternative Civilian Service', which has launched a civic society petition
calling for civilian alternative service. Prosecutor Aleksandr Cherepovich,
asked by Forum 18 who had suffered from refusal to undertake compulsory
military service, replied: "The state." Meanwhile, the launch of a CD
compilation of Christian songs at a Catholic church has been stopped under
state pressure. Senior religious affairs official Alla Ryabitseva angrily
told Forum 18 that: "Concerts don't take place in churches."

BELARUS: CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR JAILED

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

The family of Ivan Mikhailov, a Messianic Jew, condemned a three-month
prison term handed him today (1 February) by a court in the Belarusian
capital Minsk for refusing compulsory military service. "So many positive
things were said about Ivan in court - and then came this sentence," his
brother-in-law Mikhail Suboch, present in court, told Forum 18 News Service
from Minsk in the wake of the verdict. "The sentence has nothing to do with
justice. The judge did not make his decision alone." Officials at Minsk
District Court confirmed the sentence to Forum 18 but declined to discuss
it.

Mikhailov was found guilty under Article 435, Part 1 of the Belarusian
Criminal Code, which punishes refusing the compulsory call-up to military
service with a fine or imprisonment of up to two years. He plans to appeal
to Minsk Regional Court against today's jail sentence.

Also present in court was Mikhail Pashkevich, coordinator of the campaign
group For Alternative Civilian Service "Mikhailov looked
very thin, but stuck firmly to his position," he told Forum 18 from Minsk
on 1 February. The opposition Christian Democratic Party, which sent a
representative to the trial, described the sentence as "a crude violation
of the rights of all to freedom of conscience".

The right to refuse military service is part of the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion guaranteed by Article 18 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Belarus
ratified in 1976. It is also part of Belarus' Organisation for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) human dimension commitments. Despite Belarus'
international obligations, a possible Law on Alternative Service was this
year withdrawn. The failure to introduce civilian alternative service comes
a decade after a May 2000 Constitutional Court ruling declaring its
introduction "urgent" (see F18News 18 January 2010
).

Main victim is "the state"?

Aleksandr Cherepovich, the Minsk District prosecutor who led the case in
court, declined to comment on the sentence. "The reasons will all be in the
written verdict," he told Forum 18 on 1 February. He refused to discuss why
Mikhailov was unable to make use of his rights to alternative civilian
service set out in Belarus' Constitution. Asked who had suffered from his
refusal to conduct military service, he responded: "The state."

The sentence means that Mikhailov, held in pre-trial detention in Zhodino
near Minsk since 15 December 2009, must serve another six weeks there
unless he wins an appeal.

Arguments in court

Mikhailov, 21, belongs to a Messianic Jewish congregation in Minsk. He was
arrested at work on 15 December after Minsk District Military Commissariat
rejected his repeated appeals to be allowed to do alternative civilian
service (see F18News 18 January 2010
).

His trial began at Minsk District Court on 29 January under Judge Aleksei
Minich. Prosecutor Cherepovich argued for a five-month prison term, but
Mikhailov insisted it was not his fault that Parliament and other state
bodies have made no moves to adopt a Law allowing him to make use of his
constitutional right to alternative service.

Mikhailov's lawyer, Svetlana Gorbatok, repeatedly referred to Article 57 of
the 1994 Constitution, which refers to legal provision of alternative
service. She argued that the absence of an Alternative Service Law cannot
serve as a legal basis for violating Mikhailov's rights. Article 57
states:

(1) It shall be the responsibility and sacred duty of every citizen of the
Republic of Belarus to defend the Republic of Belarus.

(2) The procedure governing military service, the grounds and conditions
for exemption from military service, and the substitution thereof by
alternative service shall be determined by law.

Alternative civilian service petition launched

In the wake of Mikhailov's sentence, For Alternative Civilian Service
announced the launch of a petition calling for such a civilian alternative
service. The Petition is addressed to the General Prosecutor and the chairs
of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the House of
Representatives (the lower house of Parliament).

Belarusian authorities have been hostile to civil society groups initiating
such petitions, fining and firing from their work human rights defenders
who collected the largest non-party political petition in Belarusian
history (see F18News 29 April 2008
). This petition -
which gained 50,000 signatures and was 3,442 pages long - called for the
Religion Law to be changed to conform with international human rights
standards (see F18News 16 May 2007
).

"Obstructed the maintenance of the manpower of the armed forces"

For Alternative Civilian Service notes that Mikhailov's sentence is the
second sentence recently imposed for conscientious objection to military
service. In November 2009 the Central District Court of the south-eastern
city of Gomel [Homyel] fined Jehovah's Witness Dmitry Smyk 3,500,000
Belarusian Roubles (7,230 Norwegian Kroner, 862 Euros or 1,290 US Dollars)
under Article 435, Part 1 of the Criminal Code. He was also banned both
from leaving Belarus and travelling within the country without notifying
the authorities, and required to maintain "good conduct". This was the
first such prosecution since 2000 (see F18News 18 January 2010
).

Smyk has now lost two appeals against the original sentence. He told Forum
18, from Gomel on 1 February, that he lodged a further supervisory appeal
to the Chair of the Regional Court, Lyudmila Mikhalkova, after his appeal
to the Regional Court failed in December 2009. However, she upheld the
original sentence in late January 2010, arguing that his failure to respond
to the call-up "obstructed the maintenance of the manpower of the armed
forces". Smyk said he is now appealing to the Supreme Court.

Constitutional Court calls for Alternative Service Law

Mikhailov's sentence came less than a week after the Chair of Belarus'
Constitutional Court, Pyotr Miklashevich, told a Minsk press conference on
26 January that the country should adopt an Alternative Service Law. "He
pointed out that the Constitutional Court already decided twice back in
2000 that a Law should be adopted to put individuals' constitutional right
to alternative service into practice," Court Press Secretary Vasily
Seledevsky told Forum 18 on 1 February (see F18News 18 January 2010
). "This remains the
position of the Constitutional Court."

Seledevsky agreed that no mechanism exists to force those who have the
right to initiate new Laws to do so. "Nowhere do the Constitutional Court
judges have the mechanism to punish anyone. We have to rely on the Court's
high authority." He stressed that "unfortunately" not all Court decisions
are applied quickly but insisted that an Alternative Service Law will
eventually be adopted.

Forum 18