American woman jailed 20 years after calling out Mugabe on social media
An American woman charged with subversion in Zimbabwe for allegedly insulting the president on Twitter as a "sick man" made her first court appearance on Saturday as her lawyers disputed the charges that carry up to 20 years in prison.A lawyer for 25-year-old Martha O'Donovan, Rose Hanzi, told the court that the subversion charge was illegal because police did not inform O'Donovan of it when she was taken from her home in the capital, Harare, on Friday morning.It was the first arrest made since Mugabe last month appointed a minister for cybersecurity, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said, a move criticized by activists as aimed at clamping down on social media users. Zimbabwe was shaken last year by the biggest anti-government protests in a decade.
Martha Now charged under sec 33(2)of e criminal code. Undermining e authority or insulting e office of e President #FreeMartha #ArrestUsAll pic.twitter.com/wiGGYyNhd3
— Open Parly ZW (@OpenParlyZw) November 3, 2017
Police picked up 25-year-old Martha O'Donovan on Friday morning in the capital, Harare, U.S. Embassy spokesman David McGuire told The Associated Press.The ZRP officers claim O’Donovan posted a tweet on her profile during the recently held Shoko Festival, which referred to a certain goblin, whose wife and stepson imported a Rolls Royce vehicle.“The police have not yet preferred a charge against her and we are still waiting for that to happen. It is correct they arrested my client over some tweets which she posted on her profile, but they have nothing to do with insulting the Head of State since they do not even mention his name,” Shava said.“The police said they want to charge her for undermining authority of or insulting the President as defined in Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.”Although a U.S. citizen, O’Donovan was making a career in journalism in Zimbabwe. Originally raised in New Jersey, she “had been working with local social media outlet Magamba TV, which describes itself as producing ‘satirical comedy sensations,'” the AP reported.