NIZHNY NOVGOROD. Feb 15 (Interfax-AVN) - The judicial board on civilian cases of the Nizhny Novgorod region court revoked on Friday the resolution of the Nizhny Novgorod city mayor introducing alternative civil service in the city.
Judge Olga Golubeva of the Nizhny Novgorod district court rejected on January 16, 2002, the claim brought by prosecutors against the Nizhny Novgorod mayor's office. Prosecutors wanted nullification of Mayor Yuri Lebedev's resolution introducing alternative civil service in the city. Eight days later the prosecutor's office appealed the ruling.
The prosecutor's office was represented at the Friday hearing by senior aide to the city prosecutor Yuri Koryukin and official of the juvenile delinquency department in the city prosecutor's office Sergei Nefyodov. Tatiana Grishina, director of the legal department in the mayor's office, represented the Nizhny Novgorod administration.
The prosecutor's office insisted that Lebedev exceeded his authority when launching an experiment in alternative military service. Besides, it argued that alternative servicemen's rights were breached. Grishina stressed that the mayor had been guided by the law "Concerning Liability to Carry Arms" and the city charter.
Grishina told Interfax-Military News Agency after the hearing that she had expected "such an outcome." "The court ruling will be appealed for sure. I am not sure whether the work in the 1st city hospital will be registered as a part of service for alternative servicemen. But the municipal alternative detachment will not be disbanded, because it was established in line with a decision of the Nizhny Novgorod draft board," Grishina stressed.