Terror-accused Swedish journalists had their say- Stockholm News
Posted by Ogadentoday-Chief Editor on December 07 2011 09:15:48
Today, it was time for the two terror accused Swedish journalists in Ethiopia to present their testimony before the trial in Addis Abeba. Each of the them presented their reasons for doing the reportage-trip to the Ogaden-province in Ethiopia. Tomorrow one American and one British journalist will testify in the court.Today, Martin Shibbye and Johan Persson had the chance to explain to the Ethiopian court why they had entered the country illegally and travelled with the ONLF guerilla. Both denied any involvement in terrorism and both denied also that they were supposed to have gotten any weapon training. But they also admitted that entering Ethiopia without the proper documents was a mistake:
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Terror-accused Swedish journalists had their say.
Today, it was time for the two terror accused Swedish journalists in Ethiopia to present their testimony before the trial in Addis Abeba. Each of the them presented their reasons for doing the reportage-trip to the Ogaden-province in Ethiopia. Tomorrow one American and one British journalist will testify in the court.
Today, Martin Shibbye and Johan Persson had the chance to explain to the Ethiopian court why they had entered the country illegally and travelled with the ONLF guerilla. Both denied any involvement in terrorism and both denied also that they were supposed to have gotten any weapon training. But they also admitted that entering Ethiopia without the proper documents was a mistake:
"Your honour, I came here to Ethiopia with the only intention of doing my job. I made a big mistake taking the risk and entered Ethiopia without permission, said Martin Shibbye according to Swedish TV4. (Stockholm News translation)
But at the same time he underlined that this is a risk that journalists often must take to find out the truth.
"I take this risk because I believe in journalism, because I believe it can describe a conflict from different angles. I and my colleagues are not doing this to support terrorism", Shibbye contined according to TV4. (Stockholm News translation)
In the afternoon, the editor in chief for the Swedish news magazine Filter Mattias Göransson and the owner of Swedish image agency Kontinent testified in favour of the two Swedish journalists. None of the witnesses were interrogated about the claimed purpose of the Swedish journalists to support the ONLF guerilla. Instead the questions they got concerned the Swedish Lundin Petroleum and its interests for potential oil in the Ogaden province.
According to Thomas Olsson who assists the Swedish journalists in their defence, this is a good sign.
"As a defence attorney one cannot resist feeling satisfied in a situation where the focus of the trial lands on something else than the original accusations. It shows that the grounds for the accusations are weak", says Olsson according to the public TV broadcaster SVT.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) the trial continues with testimonies from among else one American and one British journalist who will explain why it is sometimes necessary for journalists to travel imbedded in resistance movements to make a reportage.
Mats Öhlén
mats.ohlen@stockholmnews.com