Armenia to amnesty draft evaders

YEREVAN, April 8. /ARKA/. The Armenian government has approved today a set of amendments to the law on amnestying persons who evade mandatory military or alternative service, training camps or mobilization conscription.

Justice Minister Rustam Badasyan noted that the amnesty will apply to citizens who evaded compulsory military service, mobilization conscription and training camps before the start of the latest war with Azerbaijan on September 26, 2020 in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

In particular, the amnesty applies to privates who have reached their 27th birthday by that period, and reserve officers who turned 35.

Under the law, evasion of mandatory military service is a crime that is punished with a fine in the amount of 300 to 500 minimal salaries, or arrest for a term of up to two months, or imprisonment for a term of up to two years.

According to the minister, the amnesty will cover as many as 5,131 citizens and 124 convicts, who turned 27 years old as of September 26, 2020. He said the amnesty will apply to all those military dodgers who will voluntarily turn up to the authorities before December 31, 2021.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted in this regard that this issue had been discussed a lot before the government decided to apply amnesty.

He also noted that the overwhelming majority of people wanted by the law enforcement agencies of Armenia - 90% and more- are military service dodgers and actually all of them are outside the country.

'Given our current situation, given that the process of deep and meaningful reforms in our army has already begun, we consider this decision to be correct,” Pashinyan said.

According to a previous law that was in effect for more than 10 years, draft evaders could return to the country by paying a hefty fine. Later, this law was canceled. -0-