By Saron Ghebre,
February 5, 2016
Habtom Yohannes, a well-known activist against Eritrean government who lives in Netherlands, was given a permission to attend the courtroom as a news reporter on the case of Meseret Bahlbi vs Mirjam Van Reisen. However, his cover as a reporter has failed miserably, and not for the first time.
Habtom Yohannes, whose biased political actions and impartial approach to report in a law case has typically misrepresented and omitted important part of the court proceedings, thereby giving a complete different representation of what happened in court.
The first and basic omission of his reporting starts from the very opening speech of Meseret’s Lawyer, in which he began the case by stating, Meseret as a defender of human rights in Eritrea and explaining he does his work by remaining in touch with his birth nation. He also wants to strengthen the ties between the Netherlands and Eritrea, while Mirjam van Reisen wants to break these ties. That is their respective political differences. However, by making slanderous and false accusations, Mrs van Reisen went too far and forced Meseret to take legal action against her to clear his name.
Typically, and sadly, Habtom Yohannes had intentionally and purposely twisted or omitted facts as mentioned in court to suit his objective.
The following are some of the issues:
– YPFDJ Holland adheres to the ideology of PFDJ, which is based on respecting Human Dignity and self-reliance, moreover in the Netherlands YPFDJ is an independently registered organization which has no legal or financial ties . Habtom Yohannes does not mention this important information while the lawyer of Meseret clearly stated this in court. Everyone within the Eritrean community already knows YPFDJ Holland is based on the principles of self-reliance and therefore does not receive any budget from the Eritrean Government or the Dutch government. YPFDJ members are all volunteers of the community.
– Several witnesses have testified under oath to support the case of Meseret. They have clearly testified that Mirjam van Reisen have told many factual lies about the Eritrean community in Holland and Meseret Bahlbi. She does not have any experience with the Eritrean community in Netherlands and she has never visited the Eritrean community. One witness testified: “She always lobbies to criminalize the Eritrean community”. The witnesses further revealed that there is no credence or evidence that can prove that YPFDJ Holland is engaged in any espionage acts. A Dutch woman who has attended YPFDJ conference previously testified that she has never felt or seen something that can remotely be described as intimidation or threat. She also knows Meseret for a long time as a peaceful person who likes to engage in discussion with people.
– Meseret’s lawyer has emphasized the fact that Van Reisen has tried to characterise herself as a victim is turning the circumstances upside down . It is Meseret who is being publicly accused and vilified here and experiencing actual harm.
Furthermore, in his report, Habtom Yohannes mentions things that were never raised in the court room. If he had reported the court proceedings as it happened, then there would be no issues to raise, but he repeatedly fails to report the truth. Habtom Yohannes always claims to be a religious man and a journalist, but when presented with a unique chance to report honestly and impartially, he is found short of telling the truth. He fails both ethically and as journalist and exposed himself for what he truly is. Habtom’s improper inference is that Meseret and his siblings have said Eritreans are economic refugees while working as interpreters. Meseret’s siblings have never involved themselves in political or media activities, and he should be ashamed of himself to slander people without any evidence, and everyone in Netherlands know interpreting has a strict code of conduct and any misdemeanour can be dealt with relevant authorities, instead of cheap propaganda presented in his report.
(Below is how this self proclaimed journalist reports the court proceeding through the SBS radio)