Draft dodger fined in a public trial
A 19-year-old resident of the village of Cysc was sentenced to a fine of Br1 million in a public trial, staged at the Polytechnic College in Maladzechna. The young man dodged conscription last summer.
A total of 200 young men evaded the spring-summer draft in 2006, but only one ended up in court. According to the chief of the Maladzechna conscription office Aliaksandr Reucki, most of the dodgers are currently out of Belarus.
The show trial aimed to demonstrate to the college students of the conscription age that they could be subjected to criminal prosecution for evading from their military duty.
The military have not yet decided if they are to draft the fined man or not.
