The Stavropol Garrison Military court has sentenced contract serviceman Vitaly Matkin, father of three young children, to 5.5 years in a penal colony over charges of going AWOL during mobilisation, Russian newspaper Kommersant reports.
According to the outlet, on 27 July 2022 Matkin signed a military service contract and was assigned to a coastal unit in the town of Severomorsk.
On 26 September, he received permission to leave the place of dislocation, he was supposed to return on the same day, however, he failed to do so.
According to the investigation, “wishing to take a break from carrying out his duties”, the man departed for the city of Ryazan where his family was and then to the city of Stavropol where they have a flat.
After going AWOL, the man worked as a taxi driver for several months, until he got stopped by traffic police in December. Matkin was brought to a police station where it turned out that he was on the wanted list.
The man’s lawyer Svetlana Vasilyeva noted that at the moment of his going AWOL the man had not yet passed the trial period stipulated by the contract which means the contract should have been annulled.
However, the Yuzhny District Military Court rejected the appeal, and the sentence was enforced, Kommersant notes. The judicial board for criminal cases ruled that Matkin’s sentence was “fair and proportionate to the crime committed”. The court did not take into account the fact that the man had three young children as dependents.
