Three Swiss journalists to be tried before military court
A Swiss military court’s announced Tuesday that it has indicted three Swiss journalists working for the weekly SonntagsBlick for publishing a leaked document on 8 January 2006 ‘dealing with supposed places of detention and interrogation methods used by the US foreign intelligence service (CIA).’ The three journalists will face up to five years in prison for ‘violating defence secrecy’ when they are tried in April. According to the indictment, publication of the leaked document caused considerable damage to Switzerland’s strategic intelligence service. Reporters Without Borders questions the legitimacy of the decision to try the journalists before a military court after the idea of a civil prosecution was abandoned. The offending SonntagsBlick article confirmed the existence of US detention centres in Europe and was based on a fax from the Egyptian foreign ministry which had been intercepted by Swiss military intelligence and then leaked to the three journalists. Classified as a ‘defence secret,’ it was the first confirmation of the existence of CIA prisons in Europe. A separate military prosecution is bring brought against the persons who allegedly leaked it. (Reporters Without Borders,February 08, 2007)
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The paper and editor, not the journalists published the story??
Comment by xx — March 25, 2007 @ 11:41 am