Sacked RAF Liable to Call Up for 18 Years

[BEagle]

Thanks for the example. If this was the Moshin Khan case, then I'm not sure it changes the argument. From my reading of the court summary, the RAF advised him to apply for discharge from duty on the grounds of conscientious objection. It indicates he was likely to have this approved. He declined, attended pre-deployment training, then went AWOL. This makes him a plonker at best.

Not so. I was at Binnsworth serving PVR-porridge at the time. The legal mob nearly had a heart attack when they found that many copies of call-out ntoices didn't even bear unit stamps or signatures; however, Khan's did.

During his appeal against the sentence he was given for being AWOL, the Court

'...determined that Khan did not know until later that there was a possibility of claiming that his conscience did not allow him to obey the call up notice he had received and that it was not until his interview with an officer on 5 Mar after he had been arrested that he was made aware of the formal procedure for making such a claim'

In my opinion, he was poorly advised by his superiors.

The RAF had quite sensible investigative procedures for following up failures to respond to call-out notices, whereas the Army wanted to kick peoples' doors in. I highlighted the fact that Bliar's military adventurism was far from holding the nation's universal support, so heavy-handed actions to investigate reluctant reservists would be certain to attact considerable adverse publicity.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The joy of pprune - the truth emerges!
So much for court summaries.

...and boy did I get a good deal on my PVR posting, relatively speaking.

[sitigeltfel]

Flight Sergeant Tony Penfold told the court he managed to get hold of LAC Khan on the phone, the day after he went absent.
He said: "I tried to find out why he hadn't come back and he told me it was against his religion and he didn't want to fight against members of his own religion."

Obviously Khan was not the only Muslim serving in the UK forces. Did others also object, or was Khan just using his religion as an excuse to get out of active service?

[BEagle]

But did Flt Sgt Penfold explain the process of conscientious objection to LAC Khan during the telephone conversation? I feel he should have done.

Another person they tried to call-out had been messed about in his previous service. After being posted to different units, often at short notice, he asked for a period of stability due to his family circumstances. When this was denied, he PVR'd. Then they told him that they would give him some stability if he revoked his PVR, which he did. But no such stability was forthcoming, so this time he PVR'd and left.

Then 'they' considered serving him a call out notice for Bliar's illegal war. I read the circumstances and strongly suggested that this would only land some unit with a significant admin burden and mess up the chap's civilian career. I don't know whether my advice was heeded; I sincerely hope it was.

Total Force concept? More like Total Farce.....