Tougher criminal punishment for reservists avoiding muster to take  effect in Armenia 

ArmInfo.  Criminal liability for reservists or conscripts evading military training will be toughened in Armenia. The RA National Assembly Committee on State and Legal  Affairs issued a positive opinion on the amendments to the RA  Criminal Code submitted by the RA Government at its meeting on May  20.

According to the Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of  Armenia Gevork Kocharyan, evasion of participation in military  training by a citizen summoned to the announced training, expressed  in violation of the obligation to appear at the military commissariat  at the place of registration for participation in the training, or in  failure to undergo the medical examination and examination  established by law, or in refusal to participate in the training, or  in other evasion of participation in the training, in the absence of  grounds provided by law for not being subject to summoning to  training, is punishable by a fine in the amount of fifteen to thirty  times the fine, or arrest for up to two months, or imprisonment for a  term of one to three years.

This act, committed by causing bodily harm to oneself or by  simulating illness, or by forging a document or other deception, is  punishable by imprisonment for a term of two to five years.

A person who has committed a crime is released from criminal  liability if he voluntarily appeared and took part in the training.

As the Deputy Minister noted, in recent years there has been an  increase in the number of people evading conscription for both active  and alternative military service, as well as military training. In  2023, 1,499 criminal proceedings were initiated under two articles of  the Criminal Code, and in 2024 - 1,749 proceedings. Kocharyan  emphasized that the increase in the number of evaders is already  socially dangerous, and it is necessary to lay an appropriate  legislative basis for this phenomenon.