ADDIS ABABA: Two Swedish journalists, who had been jailed for allegedly assisting a rebel group in the Eastern part of the country have been reportedly pardoned by the government and would be released with some 2,000 other prisoners, government sources said on Monday. Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson had been arrested in July 2011, after entering the country from neighboring Somalia with fighters from the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel group. But with Ethiopia now entering peace discussions with the ONLF to end decades of violence, it could be a move to help reboot the Ethiopian government's image following the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on August 20. “The government is to release around 2,000 prisoners and we are pretty certain that the Swedish journalists are to be a part of the this group of prisoners,” a government source told Bikyamasr.com. It was reported by another government source to Reuters new agency that the reporters had already received pardons before the Prime Minister's death last month. It is unclear when they will be released, although it is expected to take place in days. The pair had been sentenced to 13 years in jail. Persson, a photographer, and Schibbye, a reporter, were arrested on July 1 after entering Ethiopia's southeastern Ogaden region from Somalia with members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an armed separatist group, with the aim of covering human rights abuses in the region for the Kontinent news agency. Shortly before their arrest, they were injured in a clash between government forces and the ONLF in which 15 ONLF members were killed. When they appeared in court for the first time on September 6 last year, two months after their arrest, they were charged with “terrorist activities (...) supporting terrorists and providing them with professional aid [and] “entering a sovereign country without a valid visa or legal authorization," government spokesman Shimeles Kemal told Bloomberg news agency at the time. During the September 6 hearing, the prosecutor screened a propaganda video in support of the charges. The video, which showed the two journalists holding guns, had been posted on the pro-government Caakara News website a few days after their arrest. The defense strongly objected to the fact that sounds of shooting had been added to the soundtrack. After the trial opened on October 18, the charge of “participating in terrorism" was dropped on November 3, but the other two charges, supporting a terrorist group and entering the country illegally, were maintained.
