Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Swedish journalists jailed for 11 years in Ethiopia

Swedish journalists jailed for 11 years in Ethiopia

An Ethiopian justice condemned dual Swedish reporters to 11 years in jail for ancillary terrorism and entering a nation illegally, after a hearing criticised by rights groups.

"The judgment should be punishment of 11 years imprisonment," Judge Shemsu Sirgaga on Tuesday told a justice in a Amharic denunciation by a translator.

"This judgment should prove a idea of assent and security," he added.

Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson were arrested in Ethiopia's Ogaden segment on Jul 1 in a association of rebels from a Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) after entering Ethiopia from Somalia.

Both Swedes showed no tension during a sentencing, as if in shock, according to an AFP contributor in a court.

Prosecutors final week during a outcome had called for a limit judgment of 18 years and 6 months in prison.

Their conviction, final Wednesday, captivated a fusillade of critique from Sweden and general rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Defence counsel Abebe Balcha pronounced a span would confirm after in a week either to interest opposite a sentencing.

"I am not satisfied, as a counsel for a defendants, we do not determine with a decision," Abebe pronounced outward a court.

"We will be articulate to them (the Swedes) again on Thursday, and afterwards we will confirm again on a skeleton on either to appeal," he said, adding that a judges had creatively designed to give a Swedes a longer jail term.

"The justice has indeed upheld 14 years 6 months first, and afterwards mitigated it down," he said, observant a judgment was reduced "because of a repute of a defendants and also that they have never been concerned in crime before."

Both reporters had certified hit with a ONLF and to entering Ethiopia illegally, though deserted terrorism charges including accusations they had perceived weapons training.

Following their conviction, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt pronounced Schibbye and Persson were trusting and should be set free.

The dual pronounced they met ONLF chiefs in London and Nairobi before assembly with about 20 members of a organisation in Ethiopia, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from a Somali border.

Persson pronounced their assembly a ONLF contacts had been for veteran reasons only, as partial of their review of a activities of Swedish oil association Lundin Oil a dual were to news on.

The ONLF has been fighting for autonomy of a remote southeastern Ogaden segment given 1984, claiming they have been marginalised from Addis Ababa.

Last month, charges of participating in terrorism were forsaken for miss of evidence.


News referensi http://news.yahoo.com/swedish-journalists-jailed-11-years-ethiopia-075046629.html

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