ETHIOPIA: JOHAN PERSON AND MARTIN SCHIBBYE ARE INNOCENT AND SHOULD BE RELEASED IMMEDIATELY

On December 21st 2011, an Ethiopian court, in Addis Ababa, convicted Johan Person and Martin Schibbye, two Swedish journalists for supporting terrorism and entering the Ogaden illegally.

Today, Tuesday 27th of December 2011, the same Ethiopian kangaroo court sentenced them to eleven years in prison.

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC) is shocked and distressed by the Ethiopian court’s unjustifiable sentence and considers it a gross miscarriage of justice and demands their unconditional and immediate release.

Ethiopia: Killing Civilians and Humanitarian Workers in the Ogaden: Unacceptable, Repugnant and Immoral

Although prestigious international and national human rights organizations, have issued several reports about well-documented human rights violations in the Ogaden and elsewhere in Ethiopia by the current Ethiopian government, the international community has remained tight-lipped about those violations for the last nineteen years. Nevertheless, the Ogaden Human Rights Committee has not given up hope of the international community's help to force Ethiopia to honour its commitments to internationally accepted human rights principles. Hence, the OHRC requests and recommends the following:

Ethiopia: Torture Victims in the Ogaden are Helpless

Article 2 of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment states that: "Each State party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture."