The Offense of Evading Military Service in Iraqi and Comparative Military Legislation

The Offense of Evading Military Service in Iraqi and Comparative Military Legislation

Ali Adnan Al-Feil

Received : 09-01-2002 , Accepted : 05-05-2002

Language: Arabic

Abstract

The Military service (military conscription) is a holy duty and a sign of good citizenship. Therefore, violation of this commitment is a breach of the most noble obligation. Seriousness of this offense stems from significance of the military service itself for the lofty status the army occupies in most countries. In Islamic Shari’ah, the act of evasion was considered an offense to which psychological penalty was promulgated since Jihad had great importance and was an individual duty of every Muslim. In Hammurabi’s Codes of Law, before Islamic Shari’ah, the act was also considered an offense and evaders were penalized although the evasion offense was a military offense rather than an ordinary one. This kind of offense was chosen in this study for the scarcity of the studies on military legislation, in general, on the one hand, and to shed light on the various military legislations in Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon when organizing this offense, on the other hand. Thus, this study took the frame of Iraqi and Comparative Military Legislation. The study was divided into three topics: The first topic was to state the essence of the offense of evading service by defining it and stating its legal nature and types. The second topic discusses the elements of the offense such as age, material element, notification, ultimatum expiration, and criminal intention. The third topic illustrated penalty for the various evasions’ offenses. The study was concluded with a set of findings.

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