In Polatsk, a court declared invalid the marriage of a 20-year-old man of conscription age to a 41-year-old woman with a Group II disability. The court found that the marriage had been registered in order to obtain a deferment from compulsory military service.
As the Prosecutor General’s Office reported, the young man was neither working nor studying. After the marriage was registered, the military enlistment office granted him a deferment on family grounds, as Belarusian legislation provides for deferments for citizens whose wives have a Group I or II disability.
An investigation found that the spouses had no intention of starting a family, did not maintain a joint household, had no shared budget and did not live together permanently. During more than a year and a half of marriage, they lived together for about a month and a half.
By the time of the court proceedings, the man was living with his parents, while his wife was living with another person. They had no family or close relationship with each other.
The prosecutor of Polatsk District filed a lawsuit in the interests of the state, represented by the military commissariat of Polatsk and Rossony districts and Navapolatsk. The court granted the claim and declared the marriage invalid. Each spouse was ordered to pay a state fee of 67.5 rubles.
The decision has not yet entered into force and may be appealed or challenged through the appellate procedure.
