R. and C., a married Armenian couple, arrived in Spain with their minor children on 14 August 2021 and applied for international protection on 26 August. They submitted that R. was a member of the Armenian government intelligence service, working in the military and research sectors, as well as in the judiciary. He was required to serve on the frontline during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, which he refused to do, prompting alleged threats by the government.
Their applications for international protection were respectively refused on 16 and 18 March 2023. The decisions reasoned that R. had voluntarily enlisted in the military and was therefore aware of the risks associated with deployment in a war. They noted that, following several judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, Armenia introduced alternative civilian service in 2013 and that there was therefore no basis for a claim of conscientious objection. They further found that, although evasion of conscription is considered a criminal offence in Armenia and may be punishable by imprisonment for between 2 months and 3 years, since 2003 persons who had evaded military service in the past and were over the age of 27 could instead be subject to substantial fines, thereby exempting the applicant from criminal prosecution. Moreover, by the end of the war, the government approved a broad amnesty for more than 5,000 people who had evaded or attempted to evade military service before the conflict began.
The applicants challenged the refusals before the National High Court, submitting that, in mid-2023, Azerbaijan had launched a new military offensive and that, based on Amnesty International reports submitted as part of the case files, both the Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces had used ballistic missiles and killed civilians.
On 15 July 2026, the National High Court upheld the decisions of the Minister of the Interior. With regard to refugee status, the court held that no individualised persecution had been substantiated, as the applicant relied on a general legislative, administrative, police and judicial framework concerning draft evasion, which did not discriminate against him or subject him to individual persecution, but applied generally to all citizens. Drawing on settled case law, the court held that the obligation to fulfil certain duties, such as military service, together with the consequences arising from failure to comply with them, does not in any way constitute an act of persecution.
As regards subsidiary protection, drawing on the Court of Justice of the European Union's judgment in Diakité (C-285/12, 30 January 2014), the court acknowledged that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict fell within the definition of an armed conflict within the meaning of Article 10(c) of the Spanish Asylum Act. Nevertheless, referring to established Supreme Court case law, the court held that it was necessary to consider the evolution of circumstances in the country of origin from the time the application was formally lodged up to the time when the court was required to rule. Since information from specialised sources indicated that there was a truce between Armenia and Azerbaijan following the end of the hostilities in the summer of 2020 and the 2023 offensive, the negotiated process under way at the time of the judgment precluded a finding that an armed conflict was ongoing.
Accordingly, the court upheld the Ministry of the Interior's decisions refusing the applicants both refugee status and subsidiary protection.