French journalist Antoine Galindo of Africa Intelligence has been detained in Ethiopia on charges of “conspiracy to create chaos” in the country, the news site and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Monday.
“On Thursday, February 22, (…) security agents (…) detained French national Antoine Galindo, a journalist for Africa Intelligence (…). Since then, he has been in custody at the Addis Ababa police station.”, French media reported.
Galindo arrived in the Ethiopian capital on February 13 to cover the 37th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa.
The journalist had a visa allowing him to work in the country and informed the Ethiopian authorities of the work he would be doing.
On Saturday, CPJ recorded that the journalist was in court on charges of conspiring with two armed groups, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and the local Fano militia, to incite unrest in the capital, although police did not present any significant evidence.
At the hearing, Galindo asked to be released on bail, but police argued they needed to keep him in custody to apprehend other suspects identified as co-conspirators and to gain access to the journalist’s telecommunications records.
Galindo was detained at the Skylight Hotel in the Ethiopian capital while he was interviewing Bate Urgess, a political figure with the opposition Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) who is also in custody, the journalist’s lawyer told CPJ.
“The detention of Antoine Galindo is yet another example of the dismal state of press freedom in Ethiopia, where at least eight other journalists are behind bars for their work and also urgently need to be released,” said CPJ Africa program director Angela Quintal.
CPJ noted that Ethiopia has the second-largest number of detained journalists in sub-Saharan Africa, with at least eight journalists detained since December 1, 2023.
The OLF was one of the parties that was no longer considered terrorist when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in April 2018.
OLF leaders began returning from exile in September of that year.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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