He had some bad legal advice. He should have deployed under protest and filed a suit for mandamus or other relief. I would really hate to see him lose his pension after 17 years, but as a physician, I suspect he probably could live well enough without it.
Everything I’ve read says that he’s a very capable surgeon. Financially, he’ll do well no matter what. The problem will be imprisonment. Honestly, though, he shouldn’t receive any greater punishment than what is the norm for missing movement.
If you miss movement because you’ll lose your girlfriend, or because you flee to Canada, that seems much more punishable than missing movement because of a significant political issue that you took a stand on (and with bad legal advice.)