Konstantin Erokhin, an attorney with the Moscow Bar Association, says he was beaten up by the draft board chief of Moscow’s Gagarinsky district when he brought in documents confirming his client’s draft exemption, Advokatskaya Ulitsa project reports.
According to Erokhin, on 17 October, he came to the Gagarinsky district draft board to hand over his client’s draft exemption documents. The draft officials refused to accept the documents, saying that mobilisation in Moscow had ended, which was announced by Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
“They just needed to sign to confirm they had received them. It’s clear that mobilisation was suspended or shut down. But we wanted to file the documents in advance to save my client the worry. So that in the future the draft board would know that he has a draft exemption due to these factors. So that they would leave a note in his personal file and wouldn’t rush to call him up in the future,” the attorney explained.
Erokhin was then taken to see draft board chief Sergey Rusakov. He refused to accept the documents for the same reason and then attacked the attorney.
“He attacked me. I didn’t even realise what had happened. I think he decided to kick me out of his office in this manner. Which kind of shows his attitude towards the needs of citizens, their worries and concerns,” Erokhin noted.
The lawyer called the police and provided a statement. Erokhin then visited a hospital, where doctors diagnosed a possible neck bruise, soft tissue damage and a concussion. He plans to contact the military prosecutor’s office and the Moscow military commissar.
Erokhin represented Timur Izmaylov, an IT specialist at Raiffeisenbank and a Moscow resident who was drafted despite having a draft exemption from his place of work. His fellow soldiers say he was killed in the conflict zone two weeks after he was drafted.
