Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:57:26 +0100
Ethiopian Court: 2 Swedish Reporters Guilty
http://a.abcnews.com/images/Site/byline_ap.gif
By LUC VAN KEMENADE Associated Press
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia December 21, 2011
A court in Ethiopia convicted two Swedish journalists Wednesday of
supporting terrorism after the pair illegally entered the country with an
ethnic Somali rebel group.
The pair, who now face up to 15 years in prison at their sentencing next
week, have said they were gathering news at the time of their arrest.
However, Judge Shemsu Sirgaga said that was "very unlikely," accusing the
Ogaden National Liberation Front of organizing the Swedes' journey starting
in London via Kenya and Somalia into Ethiopia.
Ethiopian troops captured Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye six months ago
during a clash with rebels in Ethiopia's restive Somali region in the
country's east, a no-go area for reporters. Ethiopia considers the rebel
group a terrorist organization
The chairman of the Swedish Union of Journalists, Jonas Nordling, deplored
the conviction, saying it is clearly aimed at deterring reporters from
investigating alleged human rights abuses in the Ogaden region.
"This is a political verdict," Nordling said. "There is no evidence to
support that this is a terror crime."
"They are two established reporters who have used accepted journalistic
methods to enter the area," he said, adding Ethiopian officials "absolutely
do not want to see an open examination of what happens in the Ogaden area."
The pair said they had been gathering news about a Swedish oil company that
is exploring the Ethiopia's Somali region for oil. Sweden's foreign minister
Carl Bildt has close ties to the firm - Lundin Petrol. He was a former
member of the company's board of directors.
Shemsu said that "journalism demands impartiality and balance but doesn't
require violating the laws of a sovereign country."
"The court finds the defendants guilty as charged in a unanimous vote," he
said.
The Swedes' lawyers, their family and the Swedish ambassador to Ethiopia
left the court without making any comments.
In Sweden, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the Swedish government will
immediately contact high-level officials in the Ethiopian government.
"Our starting point is and remains that they have been in the country on a
journalistic mission. They should be freed as soon as possible to be able to
reunite with their families in Sweden," Reinfeldt said.
Bildt, the country's foreign minister, said on Twitter that Sweden expresses
"grave concern" over the verdict. "We will continue to work to set them
free," he said.
Persson and Schibbye have acknowledged that they entered Ethiopia illegally.
"Your honor, I am a journalist and my job is to gather news. I am guilty of
entering Ethiopia illegally, but I am not guilty of the other activities I
am charged of," Schibbye said during the case's preliminary hearing in
October.
"I entered the country illegally and nothing else," Persson added.
The international community has closely followed the terror trial against
the Swedes. Rights groups and diplomats say Ethiopia's anti-terrorism
proclamation restricts freedom of expression and is used as a tool to crack
down on dissent.
The rights group Amnesty International said after the verdict that there was
no evidence to suggest that the two Swedes were doing anything but carrying
out work as reporters.
"We believe that these men are prisoners of conscience, prosecuted because
of their legitimate work," said Claire Beston, Amnesty International's
Ethiopia researcher. "The overly broad provisions of the Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation allow the authorities to criminalize the exercise of freedom of
expression."
--- Associated Press writer Malin Rising in Stockholm contributed to this report.
----[Mailing List for Eritrea Related News ]----
(image/gif attachment: image001.gif)