Etiopien har benådet to svenske journalister, der ellers var dømt for at støtte oprørere, som regeringen kalder terrorister – ømtålelig sag, bl.a. fordi Sverige i årtier har været en standhaftig bistandsdonor for det store land på Afrikas Horn.
Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson are serving an 11-year jail term after they were captured in July 2011 with rebels in eastern Ethiopia, BBC online writes Monday.
They appealed for clemency following their conviction in December 2011 for supporting the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which Ethiopia regards as a terrorist group.
The Ethiopian New Year – when prisoners are often freed – will be celebrated on Tuesday. “The two Swedes are among the ones to be released,” said Justice Minister Berhan Hailu, adding that they have to leave the country within 24 hours.
The men acknowledged during their trial that they had held talks with ONLF leaders in London and Nairobi, before entering Ethiopia from Somalia and meeting about 20 members of the group 40 km from the border.
They said their contacts with the ONLF were intended to help them to get into a region the Ethiopian authorities would not allow journalists to enter.
They said they wanted to report on the activities of a Swedish oil company, Lundin Petroleum, in the Ogaden.
Rebels in the Ogaden region have been fighting for independence since the 1970s, and the ONLF has been at the forefront of the fight since it was founded in 1984. The Ogaden is an ethnic Somali part of Ethiopia.
Se også telegrammet
http://www.u-landsnyt.dk/nyhed/02-09-12/storsl-et-statsbegravelse-af-etiopiens-mange-rige
