Swedish Journalists jailed in Ethiopia as an accomplice for "Act of Terrorism" for 11 years - YouTube: ""
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Swedish journalists receive 11 years in jail - CNN.com
December 27, 2011 -- Updated 1054 GMT (1854 HKT)
Two Swedish journalists, including Johan Persson, pictured, were found guilty of supporting terrorism in Ethiopia.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Journalists' group criticizes courts' ruling
- Swedish foreign ministry says the sentence is not fair
- The judge says the two failed to prove their innocence
- Human rights groups say Ethiopia failed to provide justice
(CNN) -- Two Swedish journalists who were found guilty in Ethiopia of supporting terrorism were sentenced to 11 years in jail Tuesday, the Swedish foreign ministry said.
"Our belief was that the court would think they were journalists and they would be released. This is what the Prime Minister has said before," ministry spokesman Anders Jörle said. "It is not fair that they are sentenced since they are journalists on a journalistic mission."
Reporters Without Borders criticized the court's decision.
"What are the Ethiopian authorities hoping to achieve?" the international secretariat of the group asked. "To discourage anyone from visiting the Ogaden, as these two journalists did. To send a warning signal to the national and international media about the danger of receiving a long jail sentence on a terrorism charge if they attempt any potentially embarrassing investigative reporting."
A court convicted Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye last week.
Ethiopian troops captured Persson and Schibbye in July during an exchange of gunfire with a rebel group in the Ogaden, a prohibited region along the nation's border with Somalia, according to state media.
Ethiopians officials have accused the journalists of being accomplices to terrorism after the government declared the Ogaden National Liberation Front a terrorist group in June.
"Our starting point is and remains that they have been in the country on a journalistic mission," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said in a statement last week. "They should be freed as soon as possible and be able to rejoin their families in Sweden."
But presiding judge Shemsu Sirgaga said the two "have not been able to prove that they did not support terrorism."
"They have shown that they are esteemed journalists, but we cannot conclude that someone with a good reputation does not engage in criminal acts," Sirgaga said.
Press freedom groups say the two were embedded with the rebels while working on a story about the region.
Journalists and aid workers are prohibited from entering the Ogaden, which human rights organizations say is rampant with human rights abuses against ethnic Somalis by rebels and Ethiopian troops.
"The Ethiopian army's answer to the rebels has been to viciously attack civilians in the Ogaden," said Georgette Ganon of Human Rights Watch. "These widespread and systematic atrocities amount to crimes against humanity."
Persson and Schibbye were convicted on two counts: entering the country illegally and providing assistance to a terrorist organization, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Both journalists pleaded guilty to entering the country illegally through Somalia without accreditation, according to the CPJ, which says Ethiopian officials deny media access without government minders.
"We have documented violations of due process and the politicization of their trial," the CPJ said, complaining that the government pronounced the two guilty even before the trial started.
Amnesty International called for their release ahead of Tuesday's sentencing.
"There is nothing to suggest that the two men entered Ethiopia with any intention other than conducting their legitimate work as journalists. The government chooses to interpret meeting with a terrorist organization as support of that group and therefore a terrorist act," said Claire Beston with the human rights group.
Both Persson and Schibbye are contributors to the Sweden-based photojournalism agency Kontinent.
"This was the worst thing that could happen. We were hoping for a trial," the agency said last week.
In a statement issued in September, Kontinent said that its journalists do not take sides or participate in any conflict and report under international rights regarding freedom of the press, which it believes should be upheld by any government.
The trial against the journalists turned into a fight for press freedom in Ethiopia, according to international journalists' organizations. In a letter sent to the United Nations, Reporters without Borders accused Ethiopia of desecrating its anti-terrorism law to lessen press freedom and penalize free speech.
"In the name of the fight against terrorism, the government muzzles dissident and critical voices, thus abusing human rights and fundamental freedoms," wrote the secretary general of Reporters without Borders, Jean-Francois Julliard.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Ethiopian rebels say Swedish journalists are innocent AFP
Ethiopian rebels say Swedish journalists are innocent
NAIROBI — Ethiopian rebels said on Thursday the conviction of two Swedish journalists on terrorism charges for supporting the group was "unjust" as they were innocent and called for their release.
An Ethiopian court Wednesday convicted Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson of supporting a terrorist group and entering the country illegally, with the prosecution calling for a maximum sentence of 18 years and six months.
The Swedes were arrested in Ethiopia's Ogaden region on July 1 in the company of Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) fighters, after entering from Somalia.
"ONLF appeals, in the name of the oppressed people of the Ogaden to the international community, to persuade the Ethiopia regime to release immediately the innocent Swedish journalists," a rebel statement said.
The "unjust conviction... is a clear and unequivocal indication of the nature of the so-called democracy practiced by the Ethiopian regime," they added.
The conviction has attracted a barrage of criticism from rights groups, while Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the two are innocent and must be freed. Their sentences are to be announced on December 27.
The Swedes have admitted entering Ethiopia illegally and to contact with the ONLF as part of their investigations on the activities of Swedish oil company Lundin Oil in the Ogaden, but have rejected terrorism charges.
The ONLF has been fighting for independence of the remote southeastern Ogaden region since 1984, claiming they have been marginalised from Addis Ababa.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Ethiopia Convicts Swedish Journalists of Supporting Terrorism | East Africa | English
Photo: AP
Pedestrians walk past the Federal High Court building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 1, 2011.
Two Swedish journalists arrested in the company of rebels in Ethiopia's restive Ogaden region have been found guilty of supporting terrorism. The case is attracting wide attention from international human rights and press freedom groups.
Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson appeared stunned as Ethiopian High Court judge Shemsu Sirgaga pronounced them guilty of aiding a terrorist group and entering the country illegally.
They face a maximum of 18 years in prison. Sentencing is set for next week.
The two Swedes were arrested June 30 in Ethiopia's Somali region while traveling with rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which is fighting for regional autonomy. The region has been off-limits to most outsiders for years while government troops carry out what human rights groups allege is a harsh counterinsurgency campaign against the ONLF.
Schibbye and Persson admitted entering Ethiopia illegally from Somalia, but denied supporting the rebels. They told the court they were investigating a Swedish firm allegedly involved in oil exploration in the conflict zone.
The case is being closely followed in Sweden because of the firm's ties to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
In reading the verdict, Judge Shemsu told the pair he accepted their claim to be journalists, but said it was hard to believe they could be impartial while breaking the laws of a sovereign country.
The verdict surprised the large contingent of foreign observers, diplomats and Swedish journalists who had been following the trial. Ingrid Dahlback of the Swedish news agency TT said the weight of evidence had raised hopes that the defendants would be found not guilty of supporting terrorism.
“I thought the judge would at least take some of the arguments from the defense, but as it seems he went almost only on the prosecutor's line," said Dahlback. "So it's very bad news for the Swedish journalists, and I would say it's bad news for freedom of the press.”
An ashen-faced Swedish ambassador to Ethiopia, Jens Odlander, said the next move would be up to authorities in Stockholm.
“This is very disappointing,' said Odlander. "We have to analyze the situation.”
The reaction from Stockholm was swift. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt issued a statement saying the journalists were on a legitimate assignment and should be freed immediately. He said his government was already in high-level contact with Ethiopian officials on the matter.
Mats Larsson, who covered the trial for Sweden's mass-circulation Dagens Nyheter newspaper, says the verdict would likely have domestic political repercussions.
“There's been a big discussion in Sweden about the role of the Swedish foreign minister," said Larsson. "There are accusations that he has seen these two guys as left-wingers in the wrong part of the world and that this was their own fault that they came into this situation. And the result of this trial is a disaster for the Swedish government and for the relatives and for the two Swedish journalists and for freedom of speech in the world.”
The verdict also sparked condemnation from human rights and press freedom defenders. Amnesty International called the two journalists “prisoners of conscience," and said it sees no evidence they were supporting the ONLF.
The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders earlier sent a letter to the United Nations accusing Ethiopia of muzzling dissent.
Eight Ethiopian journalists are also currently on trial on terrorism-related charges - three in person and five others in absentia. Some of them could face the death penalty if convicted.
Related Articles
Ethiopia Convicts Swedish Journalists of Supporting Terrorism VOA
VOA
Photo: AP
Pedestrians walk past the Federal High Court building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 1, 2011.
Two Swedish journalists arrested in the company of rebels in Ethiopia's restive Ogaden region have been found guilty of supporting terrorism. The case is attracting wide attention from international human rights and press freedom groups.
Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson appeared stunned as Ethiopian High Court judge Shemsu Sirgaga pronounced them guilty of aiding a terrorist group and entering the country illegally.
They face a maximum of 18 years in prison. Sentencing is set for next week.
The two Swedes were arrested June 30 in Ethiopia's Somali region while traveling with rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which is fighting for regional autonomy. The region has been off-limits to most outsiders for years while government troops carry out what human rights groups allege is a harsh counterinsurgency campaign against the ONLF.
Schibbye and Persson admitted entering Ethiopia illegally from Somalia, but denied supporting the rebels. They told the court they were investigating a Swedish firm allegedly involved in oil exploration in the conflict zone.
The case is being closely followed in Sweden because of the firm's ties to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
In reading the verdict, Judge Shemsu told the pair he accepted their claim to be journalists, but said it was hard to believe they could be impartial while breaking the laws of a sovereign country.
The verdict surprised the large contingent of foreign observers, diplomats and Swedish journalists who had been following the trial. Ingrid Dahlback of the Swedish news agency TT said the weight of evidence had raised hopes that the defendants would be found not guilty of supporting terrorism.
“I thought the judge would at least take some of the arguments from the defense, but as it seems he went almost only on the prosecutor's line," said Dahlback. "So it's very bad news for the Swedish journalists, and I would say it's bad news for freedom of the press.”
An ashen-faced Swedish ambassador to Ethiopia, Jens Odlander, said the next move would be up to authorities in Stockholm.
“This is very disappointing,' said Odlander. "We have to analyze the situation.”
The reaction from Stockholm was swift. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt issued a statement saying the journalists were on a legitimate assignment and should be freed immediately. He said his government was already in high-level contact with Ethiopian officials on the matter.
Mats Larsson, who covered the trial for Sweden's mass-circulation Dagens Nyheter newspaper, says the verdict would likely have domestic political repercussions.
“There's been a big discussion in Sweden about the role of the Swedish foreign minister," said Larsson. "There are accusations that he has seen these two guys as left-wingers in the wrong part of the world and that this was their own fault that they came into this situation. And the result of this trial is a disaster for the Swedish government and for the relatives and for the two Swedish journalists and for freedom of speech in the world.”
The verdict also sparked condemnation from human rights and press freedom defenders. Amnesty International called the two journalists “prisoners of conscience," and said it sees no evidence they were supporting the ONLF.
The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders earlier sent a letter to the United Nations accusing Ethiopia of muzzling dissent.
Eight Ethiopian journalists are also currently on trial on terrorism-related charges - three in person and five others in absentia. Some of them could face the death penalty if convicted.
Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson appeared stunned as Ethiopian High Court judge Shemsu Sirgaga pronounced them guilty of aiding a terrorist group and entering the country illegally.
They face a maximum of 18 years in prison. Sentencing is set for next week.
The two Swedes were arrested June 30 in Ethiopia's Somali region while traveling with rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which is fighting for regional autonomy. The region has been off-limits to most outsiders for years while government troops carry out what human rights groups allege is a harsh counterinsurgency campaign against the ONLF.
Schibbye and Persson admitted entering Ethiopia illegally from Somalia, but denied supporting the rebels. They told the court they were investigating a Swedish firm allegedly involved in oil exploration in the conflict zone.
The case is being closely followed in Sweden because of the firm's ties to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
In reading the verdict, Judge Shemsu told the pair he accepted their claim to be journalists, but said it was hard to believe they could be impartial while breaking the laws of a sovereign country.
The verdict surprised the large contingent of foreign observers, diplomats and Swedish journalists who had been following the trial. Ingrid Dahlback of the Swedish news agency TT said the weight of evidence had raised hopes that the defendants would be found not guilty of supporting terrorism.
“I thought the judge would at least take some of the arguments from the defense, but as it seems he went almost only on the prosecutor's line," said Dahlback. "So it's very bad news for the Swedish journalists, and I would say it's bad news for freedom of the press.”
An ashen-faced Swedish ambassador to Ethiopia, Jens Odlander, said the next move would be up to authorities in Stockholm.
“This is very disappointing,' said Odlander. "We have to analyze the situation.”
The reaction from Stockholm was swift. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt issued a statement saying the journalists were on a legitimate assignment and should be freed immediately. He said his government was already in high-level contact with Ethiopian officials on the matter.
Mats Larsson, who covered the trial for Sweden's mass-circulation Dagens Nyheter newspaper, says the verdict would likely have domestic political repercussions.
“There's been a big discussion in Sweden about the role of the Swedish foreign minister," said Larsson. "There are accusations that he has seen these two guys as left-wingers in the wrong part of the world and that this was their own fault that they came into this situation. And the result of this trial is a disaster for the Swedish government and for the relatives and for the two Swedish journalists and for freedom of speech in the world.”
The verdict also sparked condemnation from human rights and press freedom defenders. Amnesty International called the two journalists “prisoners of conscience," and said it sees no evidence they were supporting the ONLF.
The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders earlier sent a letter to the United Nations accusing Ethiopia of muzzling dissent.
Eight Ethiopian journalists are also currently on trial on terrorism-related charges - three in person and five others in absentia. Some of them could face the death penalty if convicted.
Related Articles
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Putin Accuses Clinton of Instigating Russian Prote..."
MOSCOW — With opposition groups still furious over parliamentary elections that international observers said were marred by cheating, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putinon Thursday accused Secretary of StateHillary Rodham Clinton of instigating protests by baselessly criticizing the vote as “dishonest and unfair” and he warned thatRussia needed to protect against “interference” by foreign governments in its internal affairs.
Alexey Druzhinin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke in Moscow on Thursday.
“I looked at the first reaction of our U.S. partners,” Mr. Putin said in remarks to political allies. “The first thing that the secretary of state did was say that they were not honest and not fair, but she had not even yet received the material from the observers.”
“She set the tone for some actors in our country and gave them a signal,” Mr. Putin continued. “They heard the signal and with the support of the U.S. State Department began active work.”
Mr. Putin’s assertions of foreign meddling and his vow to protect Russian “sovereignty” came after three days in which the Russian authorities have moved forcefully to tamp down on efforts to protest the elections, arresting hundreds of demonstrators and deploying legions of pro-Kremlin young people in Moscow to occupy public squares and to chant, beat drums and drown out the opposition.
The crackdown on the protests, as well as the arrest and jailing of some opposition leaders, has stoked further outrage and drawn international condemnation.
Another major opposition demonstration is being planned for Saturday in central Moscow, and while Mr. Putin said that lawful rallies should be permitted, his warnings about foreign interference suggested that the government would view the ongoing protests over the elections as a threat and would take further steps to contain them.
“We have to protect our sovereignty and it is necessary to think about improving the law and toughening responsibility for those who take orders from foreign states to influence internal political processes,” Mr. Putin said.
Speaking specifically about street demonstrations, he said, “If people act within the framework of the law, they should be entitled to express their opinion” but he added, “If someone breaks the law, the authorities and law enforcement agencies need to demand that the law be followed, using any legal means.”
Large contingents of riot police remain deployed in Moscow, as part of what officials had described as a period of heightened security around the elections.
The governing party, United Russia, which has nominated Mr. Putin for president, lost a surprising number of seats in Sunday’s elections. Opposition groups say those losses would have been even steeper were it not for the violations cited by election observers, including the brazen stuffing of ballot boxes at some polling stations.
Mrs. Clinton issued her first comments on the election on Monday, after a preliminary report was released by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The observers issued a scathing report in which they said their main concerns were deep structural problems, including no separation between the government and the political party.
Petros Efthymiou, a coordinator of the observer mission, cited “the interference of the state in all levels of political life, the lack of necessary conditions for a fair competition and no independence of the media.”
There were some predictions on Thursday that outrage over the election results would continue to grow.
“The protest mood is very widespread,” said Sergei A. Markov, a political analyst connected to the Kremlin and former member of Parliament with United Russia. “Especially in Moscow and Petersburg, people are broadly convinced that there was falsification.”
But Mr. Markov said that efforts to mobilize public would have to battle against deeply entrenched skepticism that street protests will amount to much. “In Russia, people are strongly convinced that if there are protests, then nothing good will come out of them.”
And Mr. Markov said he expected the government to treat the public like a whining child. “The authorities will attempt to conduct themselves with society as a parent would a child who is crying and demanding some kind of toy,” he said. “In this case, it is not correct to go out and buy the child a toy, but rather distract him with something else.”
Mr. Putin’s accusations of foreign meddling could provide that distraction.
Government officials had previously accused Golos, the only independent election monitoring group in Russia, of being financed partly by the United States and other Western countries, and of aiding foreign nations in meddling in Russia’s affairs.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Swedish reporters in Ethiopia 'terror' trial - Africa - Al Jazeera English
Closing arguments in the case were scheduled for December 21 as Wednesday's court session ended in Addis Ababa on Wednesday. Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson were arrested in Ethiopia's Ogaden region where Ethiopian forces have clashed with the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) on July 1. The area is off limits to foreigners and the duo entered Ethiopia from Somalia without visas, travelling with rebel soldiers. They were arrested after a gun battle erupted between Ethiopian troops and ONLF fighters, and are charged with supporting a terrorist group and entering the country illegally. The journalists were slightly injured in the fighting and several rebels were killed. Schibbye and Persson face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty. A British and an American war correspondent called as expert witnesses by the defence appeared in court on Wednesday, telling the court that entering a country illegally for reporting purposes is a work method commonly used by journalists in conflict zones. Appearing in court on Tuesday, Schibbye and Persson admitted contact with the outlawed ONLF but rejected accusations that they received weapons training. In a court session last month, the prosecutor presented video footage said to be obtained from the journalists' own equipments showing the pair posing with automatic rifles. The prosecutor later had to admit that Ethiopian authorities had doctored some of the footage, adding audio of gunshots. The journalists said the weapons belonged to a security guard at a hotel in Somalia and not the ONLF. They said they had been posing with the weapons as they sought to interview the guard, who had been active in the Somali anti-government group al-Shabab. Investigating oil company Last month, charges of participating in terrorism were dropped due to a lack of evidence. "This video doesn't show some bizarre training with weapons in a parking lot, it shows another day at the office for a foreign correspondent," one of the accused, Martin Schibbye, told the judge.
The Ethiopian military has been accused of committing rights violations - including killings, rape and driving away local communities - in order to protect the foreign oil operations. "It was a report on [Lundin's] action in the Ogaden. Good and bad, whatever it was, was to find the facts and reporting them," Goransson said. Goransson added that he was aware the journalists planned to enter Ethiopia illegally. "They informed me and I took it as fact that the government of Ethiopia would not let them into the Ogaden," he said, adding that journalists often have to break laws to report in conflict zones. Schibbye and Persson said they met ONLF chiefs in the UK and Kenya before meeting about 20 members of the group in Ethiopia, about 40km from the Somali border. Persson said meeting with the ONLF contacts was for professional reasons only. "I came to Ethiopia for one purpose, that's to do my job as a journalist," he said. Journalists harassed Swedish diplomats have been monitoring the case closely and the Swedish embassy in Addis Ababa has among other things assisted in providing legal assistance to the defendants. "We see them as journalists who entered the country on a journalistic assignment," Teo Zetterman, a Swedish foreign ministry spokesman, told Al Jazeera. CPJ and other international journalism groups have urged Ethiopian authorities to release the pair. According to CPJ, 79 Ethiopian journalists have fled the country over the last decade after government harassment. The government has detained or expelled journalists from foreign media outlets including the Associated Press, the New York Times and the Washington Post. US-based Human Rights Watch said in September that the Ethiopian government's anti-terrorism law contained an overly broad and vague definition of terrorist acts. "The government is exploiting the law’s overly broad language to accuse peaceful critics, journalists, and political opponents of encouraging terrorism," the group said. The ONLF has been fighting for independence of the remote southeastern Ogaden region, mainly inhabited by Somalis, since 1984, claiming they have been marginalised by Ethiopian authorities. |
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