Lawyers assess chances of Karaushi brothers’ sentence mitigation

Human rights organizations have commented on the possibility of mitigating the five-year prison term passed by the Nalchik Garrison Military Court for the Karaushi brothers, who were accused of evading their military service. Courts are less and less often taking mitigating circumstances into account, and the convicts’ return to the special military operation (SMO) zone may be the key to a conditional sentence.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Karaushi twin brothers had signed a contract and took their service, but from July 5 to December 4, 2024, they failed to return from vacation, after which they appeared at the military investigating division. The Karaushi brothers were sentenced by the above court to five years of freedom deprivation.

Artyom Mugunyants, a lawyer for the "Antiprizyv" (Anti-Draft) organization, does not rule out that an appeal against the sentence may yield results. "The brothers were lucky, since their absence could be qualified as a crime committed by a group of people, and the sanctions were more severe. If there is a confession, this could be a mitigating circumstance.... The sentence could be reviewed up to the conditional imprisonment," the lawyer believes.

Artyom Mugunyants has noted that the Russian state had decided to severely punish those who evade military service. According to his story, the reason for the sentence mitigation could be the brothers' agreement to return to the SMO zone in Ukraine.

The female human rights defender, who defended military servicemen’s rights, believes that the appeal will most likely yield no positive result. She added that the harsh sentences became the result of tougher legislation.

On March 4, a court in Nalchik sentenced Astemir Teshev, a military serviceman, to three years in jail, finding him guilty of leaving his military unit without permission.