TBILISI, March 25 – Georgia’s Defense Ministry has submitted amendments to parliament that would tighten the rules for people leaving military contracts early, including automatic transfer into eight months of compulsory national service in many cases.
According to Interpressnews, the proposed changes would be made to Georgia’s Defense Code and would affect several issues linked to service in the country’s armed forces. The biggest change concerns what happens when a person in professional military service breaks or ends a contract. Under the draft, that person would automatically be transferred into eight months of national military service, unless they have a legal right to exemption or deferment, or can document serious family hardship.
That would mark a tougher approach than the current rules. Under the existing version of the code, a serviceman who completes national military service in the form of contract military service is placed in the Defense Forces reserve if he has served 12 months by the time the contract ends. If that 12-month period has not been completed, he must then serve six or eight months in national military service.
The draft also changes how financial penalties are handled. Interpressnews reported that breaking a professional military service contract currently results in a fine. Under the new proposal, a person transferred from professional military service into national military service would have payment of that fine postponed for eight months. After the person completes the national service term, the obligation to pay the fine would be canceled entirely.
