Service Completion Certificate and Documents
"I lost my service booklet; what now?" The question comes regularly from men who served before 2003 and must prove that time in a retirement, employment or identity file. The office of lawyer Ali Barakat, in al-Yarmouk, Baghdad, explains what these documents are in law, who issues them, and how a loss is handled.
What the service booklet is
Article 1(12) of the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 defines the military service booklet as the booklet given to the conscript and the volunteer containing the details of his military service. It is a personal record following its holder from examination until his ties with service and the reserve end, and his status is entered in it: deferred, excepted, exempted or completed.
Who issues the documents
Article 64 makes the Minister of Defence or his delegate the body that issues documents and letters confirming completion of compulsory or reserve service, or exception, exemption or deferment from them. These documents come from a competent military body, not a civil office, and witness statements do not replace them.
Where they were required
The law tied many transactions to service status. Article 27 barred employing an Iraqi over nineteen unless he proved completion, exception, deferment or exemption. Article 28 tied leaving the country to the same thing. Article 31 tied union and association membership and voting in public elections to it. Article 32 required a service booklet to admit or keep a student over eighteen. With service suspended by CPA Order No. 2 of 2003 these conditions are no longer asked for in practice, but old documents keep their value as evidence of the past.
Current use
The need to prove past service arises today in different files: counting an employee's military service for promotion or retirement under article 25, or proving a period in a military retirement file. The heirs of a deceased serviceman may also need them to prove his period of service in a file that concerns them, and they usually search his papers for the booklet before approaching the competent body. Which law governs military retirement is discussed in does the Unified Pension Law apply to military personnel?.
The annual review and the booklet
Article 65 required deferred men to attend an annual review with their booklets and proof that deferment continued, or to send them through their employer, by registered post or through relatives. That is why many old booklets carry successive yearly stamps.
A lost booklet
The law sets no detailed procedure for a lost booklet, but article 64 identifies the body empowered to issue documents. The route is for the person concerned to apply to the competent body in the Ministry of Defence for confirmation of his service or status, giving what details he has: full name, year of birth, recruitment office, unit if known, discharge date, and any copy of the booklet or an earlier letter. The more precise the details, the easier the search through records.
Evidential value
An official document issued by the competent body is an official instrument relied on for what it records. Anyone disputing it must challenge it as forged. The general rules of proof are in how a civil right is proved, and what force electronic messages have.
Forgery
Article 46 of the Military Service Law punishes with imprisonment anyone who uses forged papers or documents or a trick to escape service or to prove deferment, exception or exemption, together with his accomplice. Article 47 punishes giving false information about a conscript or his family, or vouching for it. Article 37 of the Military Penal Code No. 19 of 2007 punishes with imprisonment anyone who issues forged documents of service completion during mobilisation. Buying a "ready-made booklet" or altering a date in one is not a solution but an offence.
Legal basis and sources
- Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 (Official Gazette No. 1728 of 13/5/1969) — Articles 1, 25, 27, 28, 31, 32, 46, 47, 64 and 65
- Military Penal Code No. 19 of 2007 (Official Gazette No. 4040 of 9/5/2007) — Article 37
- Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 2 of 2003, Dissolution of Entities (Official Gazette No. 3977 of 17/6/2003)
Frequently asked questions
Who issues the military service completion document?
The Minister of Defence or his delegate, under article 64 of the Military Service Law.
I lost my service booklet; what do I do?
Apply to the competent body in the Ministry of Defence for confirmation of service, with the most precise details you have on your birth year, recruitment office and discharge.
Is the booklet still a condition for employment or travel?
Those conditions are tied to compulsory service, suspended since 2003, but the booklet remains evidence of past service.
Related topics and articles
- 01Exemption from Military Service under the Statutory GroundsThe difference between exception, exemption and deferment in the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969: articles 6, 7, 8, 9 and 63, medical unfitness, the youngest son, the supporter, and the exemption document.
- 02Does the Unified Pension Law apply to military personnel?The Unified Pension Law treats a military person as an employee. Law No. 3 of 2010 organises referral and remains the basis for legal age after 2019.
- 03How is a civil right proved, and what force do electronic messages have?Proving a civil right under Evidence Law 107/1979, and the legal force of signed letters and electronic documents under Electronic Signature Law 78/2012.
- 04The Military Service Law: Who Is CoveredWho the Iraqi Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 addresses: males up to forty-five, the invitee and the conscript, the age of liability, civil register ages, naturalised Iraqis, and the effect of the 2003 suspension.
- 05Study Deferment from Military ServiceHow the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 regulated student deferment: article 8, failing two years, postgraduate study up to thirty, studying abroad, the service booklet, and the annual review of deferred persons.