September 14th, 2012
We at Kontinent Agency AB are very happy to welcome our colleagues Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye home!
Photo by Clément Morin
They arrived at Arlanda Airport, Sweden, on Friday September 14th after being released, on Monday September 10th in a general amnesty, from Kality Prison in Addis Abeba where they had been imprisoned for over 14 months.
See the video of their arrival at Stockholm’s airport here.
– On a personal level it’s of course a relief and a joy to be free but on a professional level it’s a international scandal that we were sentenced to 11 years of prison just because we where doing our jobs as journalists, says Martin Schibbye, during a press conference held in Stockholm.
– This is the most important thing, he continues, even if we, Me and Johan, are happy to be free our hearts goes out to those that still are imprisoned, those who are sick and those who never will be able to leave Kality Prison alive. Especially our thoughts go to our fellow Ethiopian journalists that still are imprisoned. As we were about to leave the prison last Monday one of the prisoners forced his way towards me through a barrage of battering from a prison guard. He hugged me and whispered in my ear: “Martin and Johan, Promise, Promise, Tell the World what you have seen!”
– That work begins today and will continue until the day we die, Martin Schibbye ends.
It was on the 1st of July last year that the photojournalist Johan Persson and the reporter Martin Schibbye were arrested as they were crossing the ethiopian border in an attempt to enter the closed region of Ogaden to do reportage.
Photos by Rickard Kilström
