Eritrea: Professor wins Court appeal on statement about Eritrean youth organisation YPFDJ in radio programme

by K. Smits
Posted on December 14, 2017December 15, 2017
EEPA news and activities

In 2015, Dutch Professor Mirjam van Reisen (Tilburg University, Leiden University) was interviewed by Dutch radio station BNR nieuwsradio about the news that people with ties to the Eritrean regime were employed as interpreters at the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). In response to her statements in this interview, the (by now former) chair of the YPFDJ in the Netherlands, the youth department of the Eritrean regime in the Netherlands, started a court case (interim injunction proceedings) against Van Reisen. She won the proceedings, upon which an appeal was started. The court has decided this week to dismiss the case and has ruled that the judge of the interim injuction proceedings had correctly dismissed all claims against Van Reisen.

News Highlights: ICC investigation migration crimes, London-Somalia Conference, Eritrea protests

In this week’s news highlights, new possible negotiations on the UK-France border controls in Calais and the Eritrean community protested against the Eritrean government meetings in Frankfurt. The International Criminal Court announced the start of investigations on crimes against migrants in Libya. In the Horn of Africa, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights demands more access to Ethiopia to investigate on the deaths during protests; furthermore, these are the issues the London-Somalia Conference 2017 should address according to the Institute for Security Studies.

Less than one month after the outbreak of protests that led to the ban of the annual Eritrean youth party congress in the Netherlands, the Eritrean community is again protesting the Eritrean regime. The German section of PFDJ organised a series of seminars which will be held in May in several German cities: Mannheim, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Köln and Kassel. On the 7th of May the seminar was held in Frankfurt. Specifically, it was the Hizbawi Mekete Seminar – the campaign of “national rebuff” of the International Community’s accuses – run by Eritrean government through the diaspora groups.