Criminal case initiated against Crimean who refused enroll in the Russian military

Criminal case was initiated against a resident of Crimea, who does not want to serve his military duty in the Russian army.

According to CrimeaSOS, this was stated by Military Commissioner of Russia Anatoliy Maloletko during the press conference “Spring draft 2017”.

“Criminal case was initiated against one citizen and the rest are considered to be unaware, since they were outside the territories of the Crimea for the period of the draft”, – said the representative of the occupation authorities.

Overall, Maloletko counted 200 persons who are evading military service and noted that many are using the fact that they have two passports and are leaving to the mainland Ukraine during the draft time.

Russia-controlled Military Commissioner Maloletko reported that less than 20 Crimean residents have expressed a desire to serve their military duty in the Russian army.

As a reminder, this year for the first time since the occupation of Crimea in 2014 residents are sent to serve their military duty in Russian army outside the peninsula.

On December 20, 2016, UN General Assembly voted for the resolution on “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)”, which was prepared by Ukraine.

The resolution recognized Russia as a state-occupier and Crimea as a temporarily occupied territory. The document condemns the annexation of the Crimea and repressions against Crimean Tatars.

In addition, the resolution notes the prohibition of enlistment on the occupied territories to serve in the armed forces of the occupant country. After all, such actions are expressly prohibited by Article 51 of the Geneva Convention.

Earlier, Sergiy Zayets, lawyer of the Regional Centre for Human Rights, in an interview to the Human Rights Information Centre noted that the obligation of Crimean residents to serve in the army is a consequence of imposed citizenship.

And imposed citizenship is a major violation of Article 8 of the European Convention. And Crimean residents can appeal against the actions of the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights.