Konstantinos Kotidis had served in the armed forces of the Soviet Union some years before moving to Greece and becoming one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. When the authorities called Brother Kotidis up for military service, they refused to allow him to perform alternative civilian service. They asserted that because he had already served in the military, he had no basis to claim he was a conscientious objector. The Council of State, however, ruled that an individual who had performed military service and whose religious conscience later changed could thereafter be acknowledged as a conscientious objector and could be permitted to perform alternative civilian service.

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Konstantinos Kotidis