Russian Supreme Court finds participation in war may exempt one from legal consequences
The judicial board for military personnel cases of the Russian Supreme Court has ruled that “due to changes in the situation,” it considered it possible to exempt Russian contract serviceman Vladislav Ustinov from legal punishment. Ustinov was found guilty in a fatal traffic accident. The ruling was handed down on June 28, reports Kommersant.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court noted that more than a year and a half had passed since the crime was committed, and the convict is now “performing combat tasks in the area of the SMO,” so he is no longer a danger to society.
In May 2022, the Khabarovsk Garrison Court found Vladislav Ustinov guilty in a traffic accident that killed two people and sentenced him to two years in a penal colony.
Ustinov’s lawyer Sergey Bizyukin believes that Russian courts will be able to more actively use participation in the war in Ukraine as a mitigating circumstance or grounds for revising the sentence in criminal cases in the future.
In June 2023, a law came into force according to which Russian citizens convicted of crimes of minor and medium gravity can be exempted from punishment if they are mobilized for the war in Ukraine or sign a military service contract. As Kommersant notes, this rule should not be applied to Vladimir Ustinov because he had already signed a contract with the Russian army:
Lawyer Alexander Pereruk admits that so far he has not heard anything about participation in the SMO being used by the courts as grounds for exemption from punishment… The only thing he wonders is why Ustinov was not dismissed from service after the sentence came into force: according to the law, the imposition of a custodial sentence on a serviceman is an unconditional ground for that.