Source: www.forum18.org
Date: October 18, 2024
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Felix Corley, Forum 18
Officials in Recruitment Offices and military units are subjecting men –
including conscientious objectors - to arbitrary detention, pressure and
torture to try to force them to accept mobilisation. Officials use
psychological pressure, detention (sometimes for several months),
deprivation of food, threats of imprisonment or unspecified consequences,
and beatings.
Article 35 of Ukraine's Constitution guarantees the right to conscientious
objection to military service. However, in peacetime this is limited to
members of only 10 specific religious communities. At a time of war,
officials do not recognise it at all (see below).
Men summoned to Recruitment Offices face strong pressure to sign military
papers, even if they ask to perform alternative civilian service in line
with Article 35 of the Constitution. "You have to be very strong to resist
this pressure," a Protestant leader from the west of the country told Forum
18. "Those who want to do alternative civilian service are not given it"
(see below).
Council of Churches Baptists Matfei Sapozhnikov, who is from
Kamenets-Podilsky, has been forcibly held in a military unit since 1 May,
and Kiril Berestovoi, from Khmelnitsky, since 1 July. One military base in
Khmelnitsky Region holds five conscientious objectors, two of them since
May (see below).
One Pentecostal conscientious objector being held in a military unit in
Rivne Region – who was tortured by beating when he was first taken –
described conditions in the military unit as "modern slavery". "They tried
to break me: they exerted and are exerting psychological pressure, they
locked me in a cold pit for three days, as well as a solitary confinement
cell," he complained. "I don't know how long they can hold me here and on
the basis of which laws" (see below).
Article 29 of the Constitution says no one can be detained for more than 72
hours without a court order. "A detained person is immediately released if,
within 72 hours from the moment of detention, they are not served with a
reasoned court decision on detention," it declares. Application of this
Article has not been suspended under martial law (see below).
On 11 June, officials of Uzhhorod District Recruitment Office tortured
Pavlo Halagan a Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objector. "I received
psychological and moral pressure from the employees of the Uzhhorod branch
of the Recruitment Office, which led me to a nervous breakdown," he wrote
in a complaint to the District Police. "After this they tied me to the bed
with chains and began to physically torture, punch and beat me. .. The
inflicted blows were aimed at the body and head, beating with hands, fists
and feet" (see below).
The official who answered the phone at Uzhhorod Recruitment Office listened
to Forum 18's questions about the torture of Halagan and, without saying
anything, put the phone down. Subsequent calls went unanswered (see below).
On 1 July, at 11 pm in a poorly-lit tent in a military camp in
Transcarpathia, "one commander grabbed me by the neck and dragged me out of
the tent, where it was completely dark", Baptist conscientious objector
Kiril Berestovoi complained. "He hit me on the head, beat me around the
heart. I asked him to stop, but he continued." The torture lasted about
half an hour. "Despite this I stuck to my position and refused everything"
(see below).
Colonel Serhy Kuzmenko, head of the Military Police in Kyiv, said that in
response to about six appeals from fellow Baptists it had conducted three
investigations into Berestovoi's case. He said investigators had spoken to
commanders at the unit and fellow soldiers (who he described as
"disinterested people") who said there had been "no moral or physical
action" against Berestovoi. "The allegations have therefore not been
proven" (see below).
On 5 July, two officials of Kamianets-Podilsky District Recruitment Office
tortured Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objector Oleksy Kamiennoi.
"They beat me with their hands and feet on the back, body, and head,"
Kamiennoi wrote in a statement. When Kamiennoi passed out during the
beating, the officials poured cold water on him before carrying on the
beating. "The beating was accompanied by bullying and abuse of me, the
people who beat me insisted that I renounce my belief in God, they
constantly said that belief in God is delusional" (see below).
The telephone at Kamianets-Podilsky District Recruitment Office went
unanswered each time Forum 18 called (see below).
The State Bureau of Investigation in Kyiv did not respond to Forum 18's
questions as to how many officials it has investigated and prosecuted for
such torture at Recruitment Offices and in military units (see below).
The Office of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson)
Dmytro Lubinets in Kyiv did not respond to Forum 18's question as to what
it is doing to prevent such torture at Recruitment Offices and in military
units (see below).
Severe human rights violations in Russian-occupied Ukraine
Serious violations of freedom of religion and belief and other human rights
take place within all the Ukrainian territory Russia has illegally occupied
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Unknown men from the Russian occupation forces seized 59-year-old Fr Stepan
Podolchak of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) on 13 February in the
Ukrainian village of Kalanchak in the Russian-occupied part of Kherson
Region. They took him away barefoot with a bag over his head, insisting he
needed to come for questioning. His bruised body – possibly with a
bullet-wound to the head - was found on the street on 15 February. Forum 18
asked Kalanchak's Russian police what action they will take following his
killing. "For a long time this [community] hasn't existed here and won't,"
the duty officer replied
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Within the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
imposition of Russian laws and restrictions on exercising human rights,
including freedom of religion or belief; jailing Muslim and Jehovah's
Witness Crimean prisoners of conscience; forcible closure of places of
worship; and fining people for leading meetings for worship without Russian
state permission.
Within the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk these have up to
the renewed 2022 invasion of Ukraine
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
illegal all Protestant and non-Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox communities; a
climate of fear about discussing human rights violations; repeated denials
of permission to a Roman Catholic priest to live in the region; and
increasing numbers of banned allegedly "extremist" books, including an
edition of the Gospel of John published in 1820.
Torture, corruption in Recruitment Offices
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine, Recruitment
Offices have been a focus of concern. The government has frequently
replaced the heads of local offices.
By late 2023, the State Bureau of Investigation (which investigates crimes
by senior officials) was dealing with 260 cases of alleged crimes
(including bribery and torture) at regional Recruitment Offices and
military medical commissions, it announced on 10 October 2023
(https://dbr.gov.ua/news/dbr-r
Officials began investigations in 2024 after the deaths in Recruitment
Offices
(https://kyivindependent.com/m
of several men who had been called up for mobilisation.
No conscientious objection, criminal cases
Article 35 of Ukraine's Constitution guarantees the right to conscientious
objection to military service. However, in peacetime this is limited to
members of only 10 specific religious communities. At a time of war,
officials do not recognise it at all
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Those who refuse mobilisation on grounds of conscience face prosecution
under Criminal Code Article 336 ("Refusing call-up for military service
during mobilisation or in a special period, and for military service during
call-up of reservists in a special period"). The punishment is a jail term
of three to five years.
Since Ukraine declared martial law following Russia's full-scale invasion
in February 2022, prosecutors have sent more than 50 criminal cases against
conscientious objectors
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
mobilisation on grounds of conscience, More than 35 of these criminal cases
have been against Jehovah's Witnesses, they told Forum 18. Of these, 5
ended in convictions, 3 in acquittals (which prosecutors are appealing) and
trials of 28 men continue. One case was closed in December 2023 for medical
reasons (see forthcoming F18News article).
Summer 2024 has seen a surge of new cases under Criminal Code Article 336.
Police instituted proceedings against at least 3 Jehovah's Witnesses in
each of June and July, rising to 11 in August and 2 so far in September.
Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 they have "no idea" why there has been a
sudden surge in criminal prosecutions (see forthcoming F18News article).
Conscientious objectors face pressure and torture
Officials in Recruitment Offices and military bases are subjecting men to
mobilisation to pressure and torture to try to force them to accept
call-up. Officials use a range of pressures, from arguments that serving in
the military is a patriotic duty, up to and including arbitrary detention
(sometimes for several months), psychological pressure, threats of
imprisonment or unspecified threats, deprivation of food and beatings.
Among those suffering such pressure and torture are conscientious
objectors.
When taken to or summoned to Recruitment Offices, men who object to serving
in the military ask for alternative civilian service, citing Article 35 of
the Constitution (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Article 35 includes the provision: "If the performance of military duty
contradicts the religious beliefs of a citizen, the performance of this
duty shall be replaced by alternative (non-military) service."
Both the United Nations Human Rights Committee and three UN Special
Rapporteurs have raised concerns about the lack of an alternative civilian
service (https://www.forum18.org/archi
January 2024 response to the UN special rapporteurs, the Ukrainian
government stated: "The possibility for citizens to perform alternative
(non-military) service for the period of martial law is also in the focus
of the Government".
Some conscientious objectors are prepared to serve in the military in
non-combat roles, without weapons, without swearing the military oath and
sometimes without wearing a military uniform.
Recruitment Office officials often pressure men to sign documents to be
drafted into the military. If they refuse, they are often transferred
against their will to military units, often training centres. Officials
there often subject conscientious objectors to arbitrary detention,
pressure, threats and torture.
"You have to be very strong to resist this pressure"
Men summoned to Recruitment Offices face strong pressure to sign military
papers, even if they ask to perform alternative civilian service in line
with Article 35 of the Constitution. "You have to be very strong to resist
this pressure," a Protestant leader from the west of the country told Forum
18. "Those who want to do alternative civilian service are not given it."
The Protestant leader – who asked not to be identified – knows of about
half a dozen local Protestant men who, on being called for mobilisation,
sought to do alternative civilian service. "They were taken to the military
preparation centre and held – sometimes for two or three months – in
prison-like conditions. There they faced strong pressure to swear the
military oath and take up weapons. I heard that some were beaten. Some who
held out were eventually let go."
The Protestant leader said some of those not willing to bear arms and swear
the military oath would be ready to perform non-combat roles in the
military, for example working in the kitchen. "I've not heard that anyone I
know was allowed to serve in the military in any role without swearing the
military oath."
Arbitrary detention
Article 29 of the Constitution includes the provision that "No one may be
arrested or detained except by reasoned court decision and only on the
grounds and in the manner prescribed by law". In cases where detention is
necessary to prevent a crime, a court must confirm such detention within 72
hours. "A detained person is immediately released if, within 72 hours from
the moment of detention, they are not served with a reasoned court decision
on detention."
President Volodymyr Zelensky's Martial Law Decree of 24 February 2022 –
the day of Russia's full-scale invasion – suspended the application of
several Articles of the Constitution. However, it left Article 29 in force.
In 2022 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated (WGAD-HRC50
(https://www.ohchr.org/sites/d
conscientious objectors to military service should not be imprisoned.
On 23 and 24 September, the United Nations Committee on Enforced
Disappearances considered Ukraine's record under the Convention for the
Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearance. The Committee's
Concluding Observations (CED/C/UKR/CO/1
(https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/
issued on 4 October, expressed concern about "Allegations of arbitrary
detention of conscripts, including conscientious objectors, in military
commissariats [Recruitment Offices], sometimes incommunicado, with a view
to ensure their conscription".
The Committee called on the Ukrainian government to "Ensure that cases of
arbitrary detention of conscripts .. are promptly, thoroughly and
independently investigated; that alleged perpetrators are prosecuted and
punished if found responsible, and that victims are provided with effective
remedies."
Torture
The United Nations (UN) Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(https://www.ohchr.org/en/inst
defines torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether
physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such
purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a
confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or
is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a
third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when
such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the
consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an
official capacity".
Under the Convention, Ukraine is obliged both to arrest any person
suspected on good grounds of having committed torture "or take other legal
measures to ensure his [sic] presence", and also to try them under criminal
law which makes "these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which
take into account their grave nature".
Weeks, months of arbitrary detention
Conscientious objectors can be held for weeks or months as officials
pressure them to accept mobilisation into the military. Recruitment Offices
have their own attached holding centres for holding those mobilised, with
beds for 20 or more men. Recruitment Offices also transfer conscientious
objectors to military units (often training units). Some of these units
refuse to accept conscientious objectors and Recruitment Offices have to
take them elsewhere.
Conscientious objectors, while being held at military bases for months,
often have to live in tents, even in cold weather. Most cannot leave the
base. Occasionally commanders allow conscientious objectors to leave the
base to attend church nearby for several hours on a Sunday. Others have
been able to receive pastoral visits from clergy.
Many of those forcibly detained refuse to accept any salary, as they do not
want to have anything to do with the military and fear this would be used
to prove they are soldiers. Some accept the money as they and their
families often have no other income. Some have been able to have family
visits (wives often have to travel for hundreds of kilometres to the base,
which can be expensive and time-consuming).
Two of the five conscientious objectors held in one military base in
Khmelnitsky Region have been held since early May. The other three have
been held for about three months. All had had their applications for
alternative civilian service rejected, one of them told Forum 18 from the
military base. At least two were threatened with being shot if they refused
to sign up for service.
Council of Churches Baptist Matfei Sapozhnikov, who is from
Kamenets-Podilsky, has been held since 1 May, church members told Forum 18
on 17 October. Fellow Council of Churches Baptist Kiril Berestovoi (see
below) has been held in a military unit since 1 July. Pentecostal Oleksiy
Kamiennoi (see below), also from Kamenets-Podilsky, was held for 24 days.
He knows another local Pentecostal who was held for five weeks at the
Recruitment Office in August and September.
One Pentecostal conscientious objector being held in a military unit in
Rivne Region – who was tortured by beating when he was first taken –
described conditions in the military unit as "modern slavery". "They tried
to break me: they exerted and are exerting psychological pressure, they
locked me in a cold pit for three days, as well as a solitary confinement
cell," he complained. "I don't know how long they can hold me here and on
the basis of which laws."
Soldiers in one military unit forcibly put a military uniform on a
conscientious objector who had previously refused to wear one on grounds of
conscience, a Protestant pastor who knows him told Forum 18. "Five times
they forcibly put a uniform on him even though each time he would take it
off."
The pastor knows several conscientious objectors who were beaten in
military units. "This year it has been much worse than before." Military
personnel in one case threatened to kill the conscientious objector if he
talks about the torture while being held in the military.
No answers
Colonel Serhy Kuzmenko, head of the Military Police in Kyiv, refused to say
how many military personnel – whether from Recruitment Offices or
military units – have been investigated or are being investigated for
arbitrarily detaining, pressuring, threatening and torturing men who
refused calls to mobilisation, including on conscientious grounds. "That is
a secret," he told Forum 18 on 16 October.
Forum 18 told Colonel Kuzmenko that it has seen testimonies and spoken to
conscientious objectors who have been tortured and arbitrarily detained. He
responded: "If you know of such violations done to armed forces personnel,
you can give us information. We would have to conduct an investigation and
anyone guilty will be punished."
Forum 18 told Colonel Kuzmenko that these conscientious objectors were not
members of the armed forces and were tortured or otherwise abused for
refusing mobilisation and insisting on being given alternative civilian
service. He responded: "If such a person abused or beaten as you say during
mobilisation wasn't a soldier, then it would be the jurisdiction of the
civilian police."
Colonel Kuzmenko insisted that it had investigated allegations that Kiril
Berestovoi had been tortured but found that the allegations "had not been
proven" (see below).
Forum 18 asked the State Bureau of Investigation in Kyiv in writing on the
afternoon of 15 October:
- How many such cases of torture of conscientious objectors at Recruitment
Offices or in military units it has investigated or is investigating since
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022;
- How many officials have been arrested as a result of such torture;
- How many of such officials have been tried in court;
- and how many of those tried in court have been convicted and punished.
Forum 18 had received no response by the middle of the working day in Kyiv
of 18 October.
Forum 18 asked the Office of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner
(Ombudsperson) Dmytro Lubinets in Kyiv in writing on 3 October about what
action it is taking over the torture of conscientious objectors at
Recruitment Offices and in military units. Forum 18 re-sent the question on
16 October to Yury Kovbasa (head of the department on Security and the
Military) and Kateryna Prokhorenko (head of the International Department).
Prokhorenko told Forum 18 on 17 October that the torture of conscientious
objectors is not within her responsibilities. She said the Office usually
responds to written questions within 30 days. Forum 18 had received no
written response by the middle of the working day in Kyiv of 18 October.
Torture in Recruitment Office
On 10 January, officials of the Recruitment Office in the city of Uzhhorod
in Transcarpathia detained Pavlo Sergiyovich Halagan (born 31 May 1974), a
Seventh-day Adventist. Officials refused to accept his written request for
alternative civilian service.
After officials repeatedly summoned Halagan over the following months,
officers of Perechin Recruitment Office detained him on 5 June. They held
him "illegally" for six hours, Halagan noted. At 1 am, officials took him
to a military unit in Rivne Region. He again told military officials of his
conscientious objection to serving in the military and bearing weapons, and
again requested alternative civilian service in line with Article 35 of the
Constitution.
Officials then returned Halagan to Uzhhorod to the Transcarpathian Regional
Recruitment Office. Officials there refused his requests to contact a
lawyer. They then took him in the night of 8 June to a military unit in
Cherkasy. He was among 11 conscientious objectors – 9 Jehovah's Witnesses
and one Baptist – at the unit. All wrote statements asking for
alternative civilian service. Their cases were returned to the
Transcarpathian Regional Recruitment Office. Officials freed the 11 men in
the early hours of 9 June.
"We were left alone in the middle of the night after 1 am during the curfew
in a different city, without personal registration documents, without
money, without warning," Halagan complained, "and without explaining to us
why statements signed by us about returning to the Recruitment Office were
necessary."
Once back in Uzhhorod, Halagan filed a complaint to Uzhhorod District
police about officials of the Transcarpathian Regional Recruitment Office.
On 11 June, officials of the Uzhhorod Recruitment Office sent Halagan to
see its head, Ihor Tyschuk. However, once there he says he was held
arbitrarily and officials subjected him and other detainees to torture and
other crimes.
"I heard the frantic, inhuman screams and threats of the employees of the
Uzhhorod branch of the Recruitment Office, who forced a man of Hungarian
origin to sign documents, his moans from the merciless, brutal beating,
torture and mutilation by the employees of the Uzhhorod branch of the
Recruitment Office."
In his 25 June complaint to Oleh Yanchinsky, head of Uzhhorod District
Police (seen by Forum 18), Halagan adds that throughout that day, "I
received psychological and moral pressure from the employees of the
Uzhhorod branch of the Recruitment Office, which led me to a nervous
breakdown. After this they tied me to the bed with chains and began to
physically torture, punch and beat me. I was beaten by an employee named
Oleksandr. The inflicted blows were aimed at the body and head, beating
with hands, fists and feet."
Officials pressured Halagan to sign a summons. "In a state of shock and
emotion after the severe physical abuse, brutal torture, mutilation,
dizziness, in a state of extreme physical exhaustion, inability to assess
reality in order to make the right decision, inability to see clearly what
is written in a dark room due to the disease of my eyes (glaucoma)", he
signed. Officials then allowed him to go home.
Halagan told the police that the officials' actions violated numerous
Criminal Code Articles, including Article 127 (torture), Article 126
(beating), Article 40 (criminal coercion), Article 364 (abuse of official
position), and Articles punishing illegal detention. He asked for the
officials involved to be investigated.
"I wrote to the police, the military police and the prosecutor's office,"
Halagan told Forum 18 on 15 October. "All of them handed over my complaints
to someone else. Then they said they had been handed to the Military
Police, but they don't respond." (Forum 18 has seen copies of the
responses.)
The official who answered the phone at Uzhhorod Recruitment Office on 16
October listened to Forum 18's questions about the torture of Halagan and,
without saying anything, put the phone down. Subsequent calls went
unanswered.
Torture in military
Council of Churches Baptist Kiril Aleksandrovich Berestovoi (born 8 May
1988 and baptised in 2007) had to flee Pokrovsk in Donetsk Region with his
family and moved to the city of Khmelnitsky. He has been held in a military
unit against his will for more than 15 weeks since officials detained him
in July. "Kiril is asking to be able to carry out his civic duty in a
NON-MILITARY way," his wife Oksana Berestovaya told Forum 18 on 15 October.
On 1 July, Berestovoi went to the Recruitment Office in Khmelnitsky to
update his information. He also presented documents confirming his
membership of the Council of Churches Baptists. "He refused military
service as, in accordance with his religious convictions, he cannot take up
arms and perform military service," Council of Churches Baptists noted on 6
September.
Berestovoi "has no intention of refusing to carry out his civil duty to the
state", Baptists note. He asked the Recruitment Office to assign him to
alternative civilian service in line with the Constitution's Article 35.
However, Khmelnitsky Recruitment Office ignored Berestovoi's request and
the documents he presented and sent him that night to a military unit in
Transcarpathia.
At the unit he again presented his documents confirming church membership
and stated that he cannot serve in the military on grounds of conscience.
Military officials laughed at him. "They told me I would serve there," he
noted in a video message to German pastor Andreas Patz in mid-September,
"and said I need to put my signature on various documents to be paid, for
the uniform and various other signatures. I refused to sign anything."
At 11 pm in the poorly-lit tent in the military camp, "one commander
grabbed me by the neck and dragged me out of the tent, where it was
completely dark". Berestovoi added: "He hit me on the head, beat me around
the heart. I asked him to stop, but he continued." The torture lasted about
half an hour. "Despite this I stuck to my position and refused everything."
Berestovoi was then transferred to the unit in the morning. "All that time
I was not fed." He again presented his documents and asserted his request
to perform alternative service, but the documents were not sent on to the
general staff, he said, as the military lawyer would not discuss his
request.
Berestovoi declared a hunger strike and informed the military unit, the
Prosecutor's Office and the Military Police of it. Several times the
ambulance had to be called.
Berestovoi insists his treatment merits a prosecution under Criminal Code
Article 127.
Soon after Berestovoi recorded the video, officials confiscated his phone,
Pastor Patz noted on 21 September.
Berestovoi's wife Oksana and the Council of Churches Baptists also attest
to the beating. "They beat him on the head and the heart," Baptists noted
in a statement. "They constantly threaten him."
"His documents asking for him to be given alternative service are not being
considered," Oksana Berestovaya, Berestovoi's wife, told German pastor
Andreas Patz in mid-September. "We were forced to turn to the court. They
promised to provide the results by the end of October."
Oksana Berestovaya said officials are now preparing to bring a case under
Criminal Code Article 402 (Disobedience).
"They recorded a video alleging that he refused to wear the uniform,"
Berestovaya told Forum 18 on 15 October. "But he repeated to them verbally
that he was refusing the military uniform, the oath, food from the canteen
and military pay, but he agreed to work in the kitchen. They are trying to
make him a criminal."
Berestovoi has tried to challenge his arbitrary detention through the
courts, so far with no result.
Colonel Serhy Kuzmenko, head of the Military Police in Kyiv, said that in
response to about six appeals from fellow Baptists it had conducted three
investigations into Berestovoi's case and had "responded fully" in writing.
"The investigation found that Berestovoi is a soldier and has refused to
carry out orders," Colonel Kuzmenko insisted to Forum 18 on 17 October.
Told that Berestovoi had refused mobilisation and was not a soldier,
Kuzmenko repeated his insistence.
Asked about the investigation into the torture allegations, Colonel
Kuzmenko said investigators had spoken to commanders at the unit and fellow
soldiers (who he described as "disinterested people") who said there had
been "no moral or physical action" against Berestovoi. "The allegations
have therefore not been proven."
No investigation into humiliation and torture
Oleksy Mykolayovych Kamiennoi (born 28 March 1997), a Pentecostal, opposes
military service on grounds of conscience. "I was taught from childhood
that killing people is a sin," he told Forum 18 on 17 October. "I rely on
the word of God."
On 12 June, officials of the Kamianets-Podilsky District Recruitment Office
in Khmelnitsky Region abducted Kamiennoi, he noted. Officials forcibly took
him to a military unit despite his requests for alternative civilian
service on grounds of conscience.
Officials then held Kamiennoi in various military units for 24 days. "These
transportations were constantly accompanied by humiliation and harassment
regarding my belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. Due to the fact that my
religion forbids me to take up arms, I, Oleksy Mykolayovych Kamiennoi, was
constantly subjected to moral and emotional abuse."
Back in the Kamianets-Podilsky District Recruitment Office, on the
afternoon of 5 July two officials – whom he identified as Vadim and
Marian - tortured Kamiennoi. "They beat me with their hands and feet on the
back, body, and head," Kamiennoi wrote in a statement. "The beating was
accompanied by bullying and abuse of me, the people who beat me insisted
that I renounce my belief in God, they constantly said that belief in God
is delusional." The officials released Kamiennoi after the beating.
Kamiennoi told Forum 18 that he passed out during the beating. The
officials then poured cold water on him before carrying on the beating.
Afterwards, officials took him to the head of the Recruitment Office, Andry
Shukhanov (who has since been transferred). "He knew about my application
for alternative service and the beating, but he did nothing," Kamiennoi
said.
Kamiennoi then wrote a statement to the police and the State Bureau of
Investigation. "But my statements were rejected due to a lack of evidence
(although there are photos and video materials confirming my beating)."
Kamiennoi's wife also wrote a complaint to the Office of the Parliamentary
Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson) Dmytro Lubinets. "They wrote back
to say there was nothing for them to investigate,"
The telephone at Kamianets-Podilsky District Recruitment Office went
unanswered each time Forum 18 called between 16 and 18 October.
Kamiennoi complains that "the people who beat me went unpunished". He also
thinks his life is in danger. "I appealed for help to the prosecutor's
office, but after they accepted my statement, no one did anything, and
again people remained unpunished."
Police are also considering bringing a case against Kamiennoi under
Criminal Code Article 336 ("Refusing call-up for military service during
mobilisation or in a special period, and for military service during
call-up of reservists in a special period"). "Officers have been to my
church to ask about me," he told Forum 18. "I don't know if a criminal case
has already been launched."
Kamiennoi said he knows at least four other local conscientious objectors
– Baptists and Pentecostals – who have been threatened and tortured
with beatings in 2024 for refusing mobilisation on grounds of conscience.
One was beaten twice in September, he added.
Deprived of food
A Recruitment Office in the south-western Ivano-Frankivsk Region summoned a
member of a Baptist Union congregation for mobilisation in summer 2024.
Despite repeated insistence that on grounds of conscience he was unable to
swear the military oath or serve with weapons, officials took the man to a
military training camp. There they subjected him to strong pressure,
including by withholding food, a fellow Baptist told Forum 18 on 1 October.
"They were unable to crush him," the Baptist added. After about ten days in
the training camp, officials transferred the man back to the Recruitment
Office. They held him there for a further two days before releasing him.
The man does not appear to be facing any criminal case for refusing
mobilisation.
Threatened, pressured to sign up despite conscientious objections
Many Council of Churches Baptist men are being taken to or summoned to
Recruitment Offices across Ukraine. Those who object to serving in the
military ask for alternative civilian service, citing Article 35 of the
Constitution, according to Council of Churches Baptists. Some are prepared
to serve in the military in non-combat roles, without weapons, without
swearing the military oath and sometimes without wearing a military
uniform.
Recruitment Office officials often pressure men to sign documents to be
drafted into the military.
On 24 September, the Svyatoshinsky Recruitment Office's Military Medical
Commission found Vitaly Humenyuk fit for medical service. "They tried to
hand him the military summons and he refused, asking that Article 35 be
applied to him," Council of Churches Baptists noted the same day. "They
didn't want to listen to anything, drew up a document of refusal on grounds
of religious convictions and are preparing documents to send to court."
They then released Humenyuk.
Born in 1972, Humenyuk was baptised in 2013 and is a member of the
Borshchahivka Council of Churches Baptist church in Kyiv.
A member of the same church, Ruslan Korkach (born 1996), was summoned the
same day to the Recruitment Office in the town of Bucha in Kyiv Region. "He
testified about his religious beliefs," Council of Churches Baptists noted
the same day. "They pressured him to sign documents and various statements,
but he refused." After threatening to send him for military training to
Uman, officials released him.
On 25 September, after Korkach again demanded that Article 35 of the
Constitution be applied to him, Recruitment Office officials drew up a
document of refusal. They told him to return the following day with his
things.
Trying to challenge forcible transfers to military units
A number of conscientious objectors have tried to challenge forcible
transfers to military units in court.
On 26 March, the Recruitment Office in Varash in the western Rivne Region
forcibly sent a Jehovah's Witness (born 1999) to a military unit despite
his request for alternative civilian service on grounds of conscience.
The Jehovah's Witness tried to seek a legal ruling that the mobilisation
decision was illegal. He lodged a suit to Rivne District Administrative
Court on 26 March. However, on 23 July, Judge Svitlana Dulyanytska rejected
the suit, according to the decision seen by Forum 18.
The Jehovah's Witness lodged an appeal to the Eighth Administrative Appeal
Court in Lviv on 28 August. No date has been set for the panel of three
judges to hear the appeal. (END)
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