Believer faces 6 month arrest instead of alternative service

21-year-old Ivan Mikhajlau is charged with draft evasion, however the young man does not plead guilty.

At the moment Ivan Mikhajlau faces half a year of prison for draft evasion under Article 435 of the Criminal Code of Belarus. Mikhajlau does not consider himself evading from draft: he was ready for alternative service. However, as stated by website ags.by, the draft committee denied him such a possibility.

As said by the lawyer Svyatlana Harbatok, the family of her client referred to Article 57 of the Constitution of Belarus and the CIS Model Law “On Alternative Service”, many times addressed the draft committee, the military enlistment office, Defence Ministry and Lukashenka’s administration with a request to substitute military service by alternative or reserves service for Ivan Mikhajlau. The alternative service would be preferable variant for this young man, as he is the elder son in a family with many children, he helped to support the family considerably. Besides, Ivan is a parishioner of Messianic Jews community. His religious views ban him to carry arms.

It should be noted that under Article 36 of the Belarusian Law “On Military Duty and Military Service”, the draft committee among its functions also has to adopt decisions about sending a person for alternative service. The draft committee of Minsk region disregarded the situation explained by the Mikhajlaus family and decided to send Mikhajlau for active military service.

The case was forwarded to the court of Minsk region back on December 31, 2009, however the date of the court trial has not been set yet. The young man stays in the remand prison of Zhodzina for three weeks already.