Jesse Kamila, a 24 year-old conscientious objector from Joensuu, Finland was sentenced to 180 days of home detention on Tuesday 12 February by Itä-Uudenmaan käräjäoikeus (Eastren Uusimaa district court). He had refused to do military service on 21 May 2012. He was charged with "refusal from civilian service" (siviilipalveluksesta kieltäytyminen).

André Shepherd joined the U.S. army in 2004 and after 6 months’ training was stationed in Iraq as a mechanic for Apache helicopters. When he returned to his unit in Katterbach (Bavaria), he began intensively to research, to come to terms with what the U.S. military was doing to the civilian population in Iraq. “In the end, I knew the truth: if I went (to Iraq) again, I would be responsible for the death and misery of innocent people. Then the path for me was clear: I had to get out of the army.“ André Shepherd applied in November 2008 for asylum in Germany.

At the beginning of April 2011, the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has denied AWOL U.S. soldier André Shepherd’s application for asylum. April 7 he instructed his attorney to institute legal proceedings against the negative ruling. “We will keep on,” André Shepherd said. “Other soldiers should also feel sure that their decision not to participate in wars or crimes in violation of international law will be supported. They must be able to count on receiving protection in case of doubt.”

January 2013 the Munich Administrative Court decided to submit a request for a preliminary ruling to the European Court of Justice in Luxemburg.

Two Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors, Anania Grigoryan and Artsrun Khachatryan, have been imprisoned for 24 and 30 months respectively. This brings the number of people currently imprisoned for their conscientious objection in Armenia to 31.

War Resisters' International has learned that 19 year-old conscientious objector, Fakhraddin Mirzayev, has been sentenced to one years' imprisonment. Fakhraddin, who is a Jehovah's Witness, was given a one-year prison sentence on 25 September by a court in Gyanja, and has lodged an appeal.