Ukraine’s Top Court Ends Mandatory Jail Time for AWOL Soldiers
Publicly going AWOL is certainly an unconventional way to fix a flawed law, but Serhiy Hnezdilov actually pulled it off.
Last year, serviceman Serhiy Hnezdilov walked off his post and announced it online to highlight the lack of demobilization terms. He was promptly arrested and jailed without bail, because the law mandated automatic pre-trial detention for any military suspect accused of unauthorized leave or desertion.
Instead of staying silent, Hnezdilov challenged the rule at the highest level, arguing that denying judges discretion treats soldiers worse than standard suspects. The Constitutional Court agreed, ruling that automatically locking up military suspects violates the constitution and distorts the essence of justice.
A former detainee just forced parliament to rebuild military pre-trial procedure from scratch.
Source: ccu.gov.ua
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