Zimbabweans bailed over treason
Six were arrested in Harare and accused of plotting against their country by watching Egypt and Tunisia uprising videos
Six Zimbabweans accused of treason for watching videos of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have been granted bail after a judge said he had seen "no iota" of evidence against them.
The six were arrested in Harare on 19 February with 40 other activists, students and trade unionists who were later freed due to the weak case against them. They were all attending a discussion led by the former opposition lawmaker Munyaradzi Gwisai about the north African revolutions and what they might mean for Zimbabwe.
Prosecutors claimed that the group was plotting to overthrow Robert Mugabe. But on Wednesday high court judge Samuel Kudya described the evidence against the six, including Gwisai, as unsubstantiated.
"I see no iota of evidence that any Zimbabwean ever contemplated any Tunisian or Egyptian revolution," he said.
The six were granted bail of Z$2,000 after Kudya rejected the prosecution's argument that they would abscond. But he ordered the accused to report to the police three times a week. No trial date has been set.
At an earlier court ruling, the accused had complained of being beaten by the police with sticks and iron bars. Defence lawyers argued that their clients were merely debating African politics and democracy at the time of the arrest.
The tumult in the Arab states of north Africa has shown little sign of spreading south of the Sahara, though it has clearly put some of the continent's longest-serving leaders on edge. In Cameroon, where Paul Biya has been president for 28 years, the government banned a Twitter text messaging service last week. During the Ugandan elections last month, which saw Yoweri Museveni extended his 25-year presidency, authorities ordered mobile phone companies to block messages referring to the Egyptian or Tunisian uprisings.
In the case of Mugabe, 87, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 31 years – longer than the deposed leaders in Egypt or Tunisia – the heavier-handed response was little surprise. Over the past decade he has used the police to violently suppress any opposition.
A brutal campaign of torture and intimidation by the security forces helped him cling on to power in 2008 after he lost the first round of the presidential election. His challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, reluctantly agreed to enter a power-sharing government in order to help end a socio-economic crisis.
But the coalition remains fragile, with Mugabe appearing determined to force Tsvangirai's MDC party into quitting, which would force early elections. Last week police arrested energy minister Elton Mangoma, a co-founder of the MDC, for alleged corruption. Mangoma was freed on bail on Tuesday, with the judge saying there was no evidence he had personally gained from a deal to import petrol from South Africa.
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weans-treason-videos-uprising-bailed