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Two Germans and Dutch filmmaker
released in Kenya
Jan 19, 2008, 17:20 GMT
Nairobi/Berlin/Amsterdam - Two Germans and a Dutch filmmaker
arrested in Kenya were released on Saturday, officials said as
foreign correspondents there protested what they said were
violations of press freedom and bad working conditions.
According to a German embassy spokesman, the two Germans were set
to leave the country and Ambassador Walter Lindner accompanied
them to the airport. Both were to be immediately deported.
Later on Saturday the Dutch Foreign Ministry told ANP radio Dutch
documentary filmmaker Fleur van Dissel had been released as well.
One of the Germans released was Berlin jazz musician Andrej
Hermlin, who had been held on suspicion of terrorism.
'I'm well,' Hermlin said in an interview to be published in the
Berlin daily BZ on Sunday. He also thanked the Kenyan authorities
and the German embassy for the speedy solution of his situation.
'I was treated very well during my detention,' he told the paper,
saying that he would be back in Germany on Monday.
Hermlin was held along with another German man and van Dissel. The
three were arrested Thursday shortly before boarding a flight
leaving Nairobi.
According to a Kenyan television station, NTV, the three
foreigners, who were in Kenya working as journalists, were found
with 'vital security documents' and other suspect material.
Hermlin's Kenyan wife Joyce told the German Press Agency dpa on
Saturday that her husband had called at lunchtime to tell her of
his release.
The 42-year-old jazz musician and son of the late poet Stephan
Hermlin has said he is a close friend of Kenyan opposition leader
Raila Odinga.
According to German magazine Super Illu, Hermlin had been on a
trip to the African country to report for the magazine on the
situation in the country in the aftermath of the elections.
The Foreign Correspondents' Association of East Africa (FCAEA),
meanwhile, was protesting the arrest of van Dissel and the working
conditions of journalists in Kenya.
In statement published on Saturday the FCAEA heavily criticized
violations of press freedom after Kenya's controversial
presidential elections.
The journalists also demanded the release of van Dissel.
Since Mwai Kibaki was declared winner of the December presidential
elections, the work of Kenyan and international journalists had
been restricted in the name of public security, it was said.
The gagging order imposed by the authorities was unacceptable, the
FCAEA said, as was the intimidation of Kenyan journalists by the
police.
The foreign correspondents also rejected accusations and
government newspaper ads attacking the international media and
their coverage of the Kenyan troubles in the aftermath of the
elections.
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