Russian draftee sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for leaving post to go home

Russia’s Vorkuta military garrison court has sentenced a draftee to 5.5 years behind bars for leaving his military base to travel home, the court press service reported.

The Vorkuta resident has been found guilty of leaving the military post without authorisation for more than a month during mobilisation.

The court noted that the man was sent to a Leningrad region military base after the mobilisation was announced. He left the base and fled to his native region where “he was spending time at his own leisure”.

The draftee’s name has been redacted, Mediazona reports. The verdict was delivered on 16 March, the case was heard at the military base.

On 7 March, a Grozny court sentenced service member Evgeny Eremin to two years in prison for leaving the military base and travelling to Saratov for two weeks.

Mediazona earlier reported that garrison courts across Russia received at least 536 cases on charges of leaving military posts without authorisation, desertion, and failing to comply with an order. Harsher punishments were introduced to these articles of the Criminal Code after Russia announced mobilisation. The most common charge is leaving military posts without authorisation that carries up to 10 years behind bars.