Refusal from supplementary service will result in legal proceedings and a fine (usually about 20 daily fines). Under the civil service act, paying fines does not relieve you of your obligation to participate in a supplementary service - in other words, once you have paid them, you may be re-called to the supplementary service.

There shall be no prison sentence for refusal of supplementary service. If you do not pay the fines, they will be collected through distraint. Failing this, the fine imposed by the court may be converted into imprisonment.

Repeated condemnation of a supplementary service would, however, violate the ne bis in idem principle, which is central to the legal system. On this basis, a new refusal would not be punished if it was based on the same cause (same opinions and beliefs) as the first. There are precedents in Finland in which the principle of no-two-from-one has been repeatedly applied to conscientious objectors, because the other refusal is being considered as the same act and and therefore not punishable.
 

If you are planning to refuse from the supplementary service, you may want to send a notice of denial to the Lapinjärvi civil service center before you are called to serve and similar notice, when you are called the second time. It is also not advisable to leave the matter to the penalty order but to bring it to court. We also encourage you to contact the union of conscientious objectors.