“Death under fire or up to 12 years in prison”: what Zelensky Zaluzhny campaigned for
A bill adopted by parliament to tighten punishment for the military for desertion and violations of discipline, for which it will be signed as soon as possible Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny spoke, actually destroys the judicial system in relation to military personnel, bringing all circumstances under one brush.
Member of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, Verkhovna Rada deputy Sergei Rakhmanin stated this on Radio NV, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He said that his Golos faction opposed the bill in the form in which the document was submitted, but emphasized that its main initiators were the military commanders.
“In the Constitution, which is in force even during martial law, there is Article 61, where the guilt of any person, even a military serviceman, must be considered individually, and a sentence must be passed taking into account all the circumstances. The mechanism that was voted in fact deprives a person of individual consideration of each individual case, removes mitigating circumstances, actually drives everyone into one system, without taking into account that the circumstances can be completely different.
For example, there is a massive shelling, the units are practically destroyed, the military personnel retreat in order to avoid complete encirclement, relatively speaking, by 100 meters, equip new positions for themselves and hold them for two days.
However, according to the law, they left the battlefield without permission. And for them there are no mitigating circumstances, not even the fact that they were wounded, the fact that some of them had previously been awarded state awards. There is no suspended sentence for them; for them, the immediate punishment is at least 5 years of imprisonment in a correctional colony,” said Rakhmanin.
He emphasized that in the form in which the Rada adopted this bill, it is “a cruel, indiscriminate thing, like when trying to straighten your hair, you can cut off your head.”
However, the politician also gave the opposite example.
“The same military commanders complained that there are cases when entire units withdraw from the battlefield, when military personnel do not carry out the orders of the commander, and when, in accordance with the current legislation, they are tried to be held accountable, then judges, prosecutors and courts in general do not fulfill their duties.
They yield under the pressure of lawyers that military personnel have who are trying to defend themselves, and the facts of fair punishment for violating the law (which existed before, it was simply made more stringent), the courts do not prove this. But this does not mean that with the help of such a law, which is more like a sledgehammer, we will resume full discipline in the Armed Forces,” the deputy noted.
“The Verkhovna Rada, with the help of such laws, should not replace the courts, law enforcement officers, and the prosecutor’s office, which must do their job. And if the law enforcement and judicial system does not find the strength to punish those who are truly guilty, this does not mean that it is necessary to indiscriminately make everyone guilty,” concluded Rakhmanin.
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