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15 are in custody; four are on trial.

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A British attorney came to Armenia to represent the Jehovah's Witnesses

None of the 24 men who began their alternative civil service last year serves anymore. Twenty-two of them are Jehovah’s Witnesses and one is a Molokan (whose religious beliefs, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, prohibit military service). One young man who originally took alternative service decided to pass on to military duty.

Criminal proceedings were opened against 21 from the group; 15 are in custody.

Armenia ratified the law on alternative labor service instead of military service in December 2003. It was part of the country’s commitments to the Council of Europe. Before that, more than 150 Jehovah’s Witnesses were sentenced to imprisonment for refusing to serve in the army.

After the law was adopted 22 Jehovah’s Witnesses went into civil service as attendants in hospitals and boarding schools. But it turned out during the service that they were supervised by military police, which the men say violates their religious beliefs, by placing them under authority of military. Clothes and other items were issued to them by the Ministry of Defense by the order of Minister of Defense Sergh Sargsyan.

The four accused served in the Sevan mental hospital from December 2004 to 18 May, 2005. During that time they, and human rights activists, complained that they were being treated cruelly and were being punished for their position as “conscientious objectors”. (See...)

On May 2, they submitted an application about their refusal to serve to the director of the hospital and refused to continue their work. They pointed out in their application that this service was of a military nature and that their conscience, which had been brought up on biblical principles, did not allow them to be engaged in military service. There was no reply to the application.

On May 18, they left the territory of the hospital. The accused testified in court that they had left the hospital because the director had driven them out, locked the door of the room and left them under the rain and in the cold and they had no choice but to leave the hospital. They have been kept under arrest since August.

Criminal proceedings were started against them on charges of desertion (punishable by up to four years of imprisonment), then the charges were extended to include organized desertion (4-10 years of imprisonment). The criminal case was first investigated by the Office of the Military Prosecutor and then by the Office of the Public Prosecutor.

Defendant Boris Melkumyan, 20, testified against the hospital’s administration. He said that director Gagik Karapetyan twice violently slapped him in the face, forced him and others to clear ice using their bare hands and also periodically used them for his private business (making them haul furniture and construction materials).

The director testified that no such events had taken place. He complained that the young men did not work well.

A criminal case had been instituted against Melkumyan earlier for rejecting military service (up to 2 years of imprisonment). He said that after the law on the alternative service came into effect he mistakenly thought it had nothing to do with the army and agreed to serve.

He said that he had been assured in the military registration and enlistment office that the service would be only in civil, common working conditions and he would have an opportunity to participate in religious meetings together with his fellow believers. During the service they were prohibited from going out of the hospital and the regime of the service was determined from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. without a rest-day. And the term of their service was to be 3.5 years (as opposed to the common two years of active duty).

British attorney Richard Daniel, himself a Jehovah’s Witness, came to Armenia especially for the case and presented a 17-page petition for dismissing the criminal case. The judge turned down the petition twice, after which other defendants refused to testify.