Vitebsk doctor helped conscripts evade military service for six years
A Vitebsk endoscopy doctor has been helping conscripts evade compulsory military service for six years, Vasily Pashkovsky, head of the anti-corruption and organized crime department of the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, told a BELTA correspondent.
From 2007 to 2013, an endoscopy doctor at one of the medical institutions in the regional center received monetary rewards for issuing medical documents stating the presence of peptic ulcer disease, which allowed conscripts to be deemed unfit for compulsory military service. The bribe amount for the diagnosis ranged from $400 to $3,000, depending on the client's financial capacity. The total amount of illegal income based on established facts, and there are already more than a dozen of them, amounts to $24,000. Criminal cases have been initiated against the doctor for each of them under Part 1, Part 2 of Article 430 of the Criminal Code of Belarus. The maximum penalty provides for up to ten years of imprisonment with confiscation of property and deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities.
The suspect has been taken into custody. The preliminary investigation against him is being conducted by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus for the Vitebsk Region.