Zimbabwe Releases American Charged With Insulting Mugabe
- 6 years ago
Zimbabwe Releases American Charged With Insulting Mugabe
a platforms as well as running some Twitter accounts." Prosecutors said
that she had access to the anonymous account that had posted the offensive tweet, which included a photograph of Mr. Mugabe, 93, with an illustration of a catheter, but they presented little evidence to support their accusation that she was responsible. that systematically sought to incite political unrest through the expansion, development and use of a sophisticated network of social medi
Supported by By Jeffrey Moyo and Norimitsu Onishi HARARE, Zimbabwe — An American woman who was arrested in Zimbabwe in November over a tweet mocking
Robert Mugabe, weeks before he was forced out as president, was set free on Thursday after state prosecutors failed to prepare their case.
The Zimbabwean government, which had established a cybersecurity ministry a month before her arrest, began cracking down on social media in 2016 after activists using WhatsApp
and Facebook organized street protests against Mr. Mugabe’s government.
Her arrest, which came less than two weeks before Mr. Mugabe’s resignation, had raised fears
that the Zimbabwean government was stepping up efforts to control social media before national elections scheduled for mid-2018.
The government, could revive its effort to put Ms. O’Donovan on trial by presenting new evidence,
but Linda Gatsikwa, a prosecutor, gave no indication of what the state would do.
a platforms as well as running some Twitter accounts." Prosecutors said
that she had access to the anonymous account that had posted the offensive tweet, which included a photograph of Mr. Mugabe, 93, with an illustration of a catheter, but they presented little evidence to support their accusation that she was responsible. that systematically sought to incite political unrest through the expansion, development and use of a sophisticated network of social medi
Supported by By Jeffrey Moyo and Norimitsu Onishi HARARE, Zimbabwe — An American woman who was arrested in Zimbabwe in November over a tweet mocking
Robert Mugabe, weeks before he was forced out as president, was set free on Thursday after state prosecutors failed to prepare their case.
The Zimbabwean government, which had established a cybersecurity ministry a month before her arrest, began cracking down on social media in 2016 after activists using WhatsApp
and Facebook organized street protests against Mr. Mugabe’s government.
Her arrest, which came less than two weeks before Mr. Mugabe’s resignation, had raised fears
that the Zimbabwean government was stepping up efforts to control social media before national elections scheduled for mid-2018.
The government, could revive its effort to put Ms. O’Donovan on trial by presenting new evidence,
but Linda Gatsikwa, a prosecutor, gave no indication of what the state would do.