Russian man sentenced to five years in prison for buying fake death certificate to avoid military service

An Ulan-Ude military court has sentenced Buryatia resident Zorigto Arabzhaev to five years in prison on desertion charges after he purchased a counterfeit death certificate to avoid going to war. Arabzhaeva pled guilty to the charges.

According to court documents, Arabzhaev was drafted into the army in November 2022. Four months later, he took a leave of absence for personal reasons and didn’t return to his unit when it was over. He told the court that he chose not to return because his wife was afraid for his life and had threatened suicide multiple times. His wife explained during his trial that she was in a depressive state at the time because she had lost her son in a car crash in September 2022 and her husband was mobilized shortly after.

“Because of his wife’s behavior,” reads the court’s sentence, Arabzhaev purchased a death certificate to avoid having to complete his service. In late April, when military police showed up at his home, his son showed them the fake document, which said that he had died on March 7. Arabzhaev was arrested on May 4.