Refusal of medical examination has been criminalized. The law will also apply to criminal proceedings of those discharged from the military.
03-07-2026 16:44 Armenia Press of Diaspora
azatutyun.am The Parliament today approved the draft law on criminalizing refusal to undergo medical examination or provide samples:
The Criminal Code was amended to include a new offense, under which individuals who have the status of witness, detainee, or defendant in proceedings for a serious or particularly serious crime will be subject to criminal liability if they refuse or evade providing samples for examination or undergoing examination:
This legislative initiative initially applied only to individuals exempted from military service for health reasons in criminal proceedings. However, the Government, represented by Deputy Minister of Justice Gevorg Kocharyan, proposed to extend this amendment in the Criminal Code not only to the criminal proceedings of those exempted from conscription but also to all criminal cases in general, establishing milder penalties:
Accordingly, for individuals exempted from conscription due to health issues who evade undergoing a second medical examination within the framework of criminal proceedings, a fine of 1.5 million drams or up to 2 years of imprisonment is stipulated:
The author of the bill, MP Vahagn Aleksanyan from the "Civil Contract" faction, noted that this regulation will allow law enforcement to uncover individuals who have evaded military service through fraud.
"They initiate proceedings, saying, 'Come and undergo the examination, let's see if you have that illness, go for an MRI.' The citizen undergoing the proceedings says, 'I won't go,' and at this moment, the law enforcement system has no tools to compel him to go and undergo that examination. He says, 'I won't go, and that's it.' This is an unnatural, abnormal situation, and this draft is aimed at overcoming it," said the MP from the Civil Contract party.
* This text was automatically translated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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