4,500 convicts agreed to leave prison for the front, - Ministry of Justice

4,500 convicts agreed to leave prison for the front, - Ministry of Justice

In April, the Ministry of Justice conducted a survey among prisoners, where they were asked about release by signing a contract for military service. We agreed that it was necessary to pass a law on parole by concluding a contract for military service for almost 5 thousand convicts.

Deputy Minister of Justice Olena Vysotska spoke about this in an interview with Glavkom.

“4.5 thousand convicts answered: “Yes.” It should be understood: the administrations of penitentiary institutions did not question prisoners under articles of the Criminal Code, some of which are now not subject to mobilization. Also, their health status was not taken into account. And, I repeat, the most important criterion is motivation,” Vysotska emphasized.

She noted that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the ministry received more than a thousand applications from convicts eager to fight.

“However, neither the military nor the parliament were then ready to give the green light to their mobilization. During the public discussion around changes to the mobilization law, which lasted from the end of last year, the situation changed,” the deputy minister explained.

She also commented on the words of People’s Deputy Oleksandr Bakumov, who announced that in Ukraine the number of prisoners potentially subject to mobilization is 20 thousand people. Vysotska noted that when the Ministry of Justice prepared these statistics for people’s deputies, they immediately rejected about 4 thousand convicts who were diagnosed with socially dangerous diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis. However, the obstacle may be not so much the “bouquet” of illnesses as the lack of desire of the convict to go to war.