YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS:

Sweden's prime minister wants two of its journalists who were found guilty Wednesday of supporting terrorism in Ethiopia to be freed and returned home as soon as possible, saying they were on a "journalistic mission", CNN reports.

The pair could face up to 15 years in prison, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said. Their next court appearance is scheduled for December 27 and sentencing could occur then.

Ethiopian troops captured Johan Persson and Martin 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.

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.

"Our starting point is and remains that they have been in the country on a journalistic mission," Swedish Prime Minister Frederick Reinfeldt said in a statement. "They should be freed as soon as possible and be able to rejoin their families in Sweden."

Reinfeldt said his government was examining the guilty verdict in consultation with the journalists and their families. "But we are already making high-level contact with the Ethiopian government in this matter," the statement said.

Amnesty International called for their immediate release. "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.

Persson and Schibbye faced two counts: one for entering the country illegally and a second for providing assistance to a terrorist organization, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Both journalists have pleaded guilty to entering the country illegally through Somalia without accreditation, according to the committee, which says Ethiopian officials deny media access without government minders.

Viewed 195 times