Penalties to Be Toughened for Avoiding Military Draft and Training Gatherings

The government is tightening criminal liability for avoiding military or alternative service draft and training gatherings. The draft law on amendments to the Criminal Code of Armenia was presented to the National Assembly by Deputy Minister of Justice Gevorg Kocharian.

Currently, the Criminal Code provides for criminal liability for evading the declared draft for mandatory military or alternative service, as well as for avoiding training gatherings (under Articles 461 and 462 of the Criminal Code).

The state has observed an increase in cases of evading mandatory military or alternative service drafts and training gatherings.

“The draft proposes to tighten the criminal liability for actions specified in parts 1 of Articles 461 and 462 of the Criminal Code. Specifically, it suggests replacing the penalty for evading military service in Article 461, part 1—currently between 2 to 5 years of imprisonment—with a term of 3 to 6 years. For Article 462, regarding evading training gatherings, it is proposed to increase the established fine from a maximum of 20 times to 15 to 30 times the amount, and the sanction for imprisonment currently set at a maximum of 2 years will be replaced with a term of 1 to 3 years,” said Kocharian.

It is worth noting that the government has emphasized the importance of such changes, stating that they could contribute to a reduction in cases of avoiding military service drafts and training gatherings.