SHERBORN -- Nearly a year ago, Camilo Mejia ended five months of hiding when he spoke at the Peace Abbey before surrendering to authorities because he refused to rejoin his Army unit in Iraq.

Now, after being found guilty in May of desertion by a military court and serving nearly a year in a military jail, Mejia is back at the Peace Abbey to receive that organization's Courage of Conscience Award.

Tonight, Mejia will receive the award because "this is the first soldier to have the courage to publicly stand up to the U.S policy in Iraq," said Peace Abbey Director Lewis Randa.

Mejia, a 29-year-old Nicaraguan immigrant who served with a Florida National Guard infantry unit for seven months in Iraq in 2003, did not return to his unit after being on leave.

"It's only when you come home and begin to look for justifications for the war that you realize war is evil," said Mejia last year.

Randa said Mejia came to the conclusion that the war was not worth fighting after serving in Iraq.

"He no longer felt a responsibility to return to his unit," Randa said. "He learned firsthand that the Iraqi people were not being best served by the intervention."

Randa did not say how Mejia heard of the Peace Abbey but said, "He received much of his counseling at the Peace Abbey through the five months he was underground. That's where he expanded his knowledge on conscientious objection."

Randa would not comment on whether Mejia - who filed a 55-page document stating his wish to be a conscientious objector when he was arrested - was sheltered at the Peace Abbey while being a fugitive.

Past Courage of Conscience Awards have been given to Arun Ghandi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Mother Teresa, Maya Angelo and Finding, a Guatemalan human rights organization.

Randa said he began counseling men and women about conscientious objection in 1972 in Sherborn, the same year he was granted objector status to the Vietnam War. The Peace Abbey was founded in 1988.

Today's press conference will begin at 6:30 p.m. with the award ceremony beginning at 7 p.m. at the Peace Abbey at 2 North Main St.