UkraineConfirmed
Ukraine's Supreme Court releases a Jehovah's Witness from prison — and confirms that religious belief is no defence to refusing mobilisation
In a final ruling of 19 August 2026, a panel of the Cassation Criminal Court upheld the conviction of a baptised Witness deacon under Article 336 for refusing a call-up notice, then released him from serving his three-year term on two years' probation. The precedent it applied — that belief is no answer to a mobilisation charge — is one two Supreme Court judges dissented from, that panels of the court tried three times to reopen, and whose underlying statutes four constitutional complaints were challenging as of the Court's notice of 6 May 2026. The same precedent holds that call-up during mobilisation does not cancel an objector's right to refuse to carry or use a weapon.