A contract soldier from Dagestan who fought in Ukraine was convicted for visiting his sick father

A court in Makhachkala sentenced Rabiul Berkikhanov, a serviceman from Dagestan, to five years and five months in prison. He participated in the war with Ukraine as a volunteer and was forced to leave the war zone a month before the end of the contract to visit his single father suffering from a stroke.

“There was no one to sit with his father, and as soon as he got better, Berkikhanov repeatedly asked to return to the NWO. But he was sued and sentenced to 5.5 years. Now he has filed an appeal. He asks for help to return back to the unit in the NVO,” said Shamil Khadulaev, a member of the Public Monitoring Commission of Dagestan, who visited a prisoner in the pre-trial detention center of Makhachkala.

The courts of the regions of the South and the North Caucasus regularly sentence servicemen accused of leaving the unit to long terms.

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