Court replaces prison with probation for Jehovah's Witness who refused to fight
The Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld the conviction of a Jehovah's Witness for evading mobilization, replacing a three-year prison sentence with a probationary term.
The Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld the conviction of a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, a resident of Ternopil region, found guilty of evading mobilization, but replaced the three-year prison sentence with a probationary term. This was reported by Espreso.
The man was subject to military service and had undergone a military medical commission that deemed him fit for duty. However, in April 2023, he refused to accept a summons and did not report to the assembly point, explaining that since 2014 he has been a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, whose religious beliefs do not permit him to wear a military uniform or bear arms. Following his refusal of the summons, criminal proceedings were opened against him, and the Chortkiv District Court of Ternopil Oblast on November 8, 2024, found the man guilty under Article 336 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, sentencing him to three years of imprisonment; the appellate court left the decision unchanged.
The Supreme Court agreed that religious beliefs in themselves do not exempt a person from the obligation to perform military service during mobilization, since the legislation does not provide for an alternative service procedure for the mobilization period under martial law. At the same time, the court added that beliefs may be taken into account during service itself — in particular, a serviceman cannot be compelled to carry out orders related to bearing or using weapons if this contradicts his faith. Taking into account that the man committed the offense for the first time, had no prior convictions, and is characterized positively, the panel of judges replaced the actual deprivation of liberty with release from serving the sentence on probation.
As the Union of Orthodox Journalists reported earlier, the Netishyn City Court of Khmelnytskyi Oblast had sentenced a resident of Ternopil region to three years in prison for evading mobilization.
