Two Swedish journalists have been sentenced to an 11-year prison term in Ethiopia. Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson were arrested in July on charges of aiding a rebel group and entering the country illegally. In Stockholm, the pair’s Swedish attorney, Thomas Olsson, criticized the verdict.

Thomas Olsson: “Eleven years in prison can, at the first glance, seem as a positive decision, if you think of the fact that the prosecutor wanted 18-and-a-half years. But you should always also remember that this is about two innocent journalists who have tried to do their work, and in that perspective, to sentence them to 11 years in prison is a very brutal verdict.”