Volgograd court denies pacifist's right to alternative service

The appellate instance has upheld the decision of the district court to refuse to recognize the right of Bogdan Letunov, a zoo activist and pacifist from Volgograd, to an alternative army service. The instance has failed to take into account the violation by the conscription commission of the requirements of the law on the alternative service, a human rights defender has pointed out.

"He's a peace-loving person with negative attitude towards military conflicts, hostilities, and any form of violence ... He is for a calm civil society. He does not want to take a military oath and wouldn't learn how to kill humans," Sergey Semushin, an advocate, has described his client.

He said that Bogdan Letunov has a long-standing hobby – taking care of animals. His family members pick up stray cats and dogs and treat them at their own expense.

"They wouldn't listen to me at the sitting of the draft commission ... Despite my request to hear the witnesses I mentioned in my application, they refused me. I tried to express my views, but they didn't give me the floor," Bogdan Letunov said in his appeal complaint.

He was denied the replacement of the military service by conscription with the alternative civil service, indicating that he "has failed to prove that his military service was contrary to his convictions or religion."

Sergey Krivenko*, the director of the human rights group "Citizen. Army. Law"*, has noted that the courts "are often guided not by the letter of the law, but by the political situation." According to his story, in similar cases before the start of the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine, courts made positive decisions in about 50% of cases. During the SMO, this ratio decreased: only a third of judgments are made in applicants' favour.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Volgograd Regional Court denied Anton Kuznetsov, a member of a pacifist religious community, his right to an alternative civilian service.

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