from MARCUS MUSHONGA in Harare, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Bureau
HARARE, (CAJ News) – A ZIMBABWEAN man has been languishing in prison for close to a month after his arrest on charges of undermining authority of or insulting President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
This evokes memories of the crackdown under the then president, Robert Mugabe (now late) when 200 people were prosecuted and persecuted on the same charges.
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers arrested Patrick Kingirasi, an unemployed resident of Bindura in Mashonaland Central province, on November 18 and charged him under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
Prosecutors alleged that Kingirasi called Edson Chibaya, a fellow Bindura resident, on his mobile phone and made some utterances to the effect that the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) members were thieves.
He allegedly blamed the party’s leader, Mnangagwa, for causing massive suffering among citizens and for authoring the country’s economic crisis.
Prosecutors said Kingirasi’s alleged utterances were unlawful, intentional, abusive, indecent and abusive.
The Bindura resident is the latest among dozens of Zimbabweans, who have been arrested, detained and prosecuted on charges of undermining authority of or insulting president Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa (81) came into power in 2017 after a coup that deposed Mugabe.
He pledged to uphold human rights but critics argue his administration is more iron-fisted than Mugabe’s, which ruled from independence in 1980.
Mnangagwa was re-elected in August in a controversial election.
– CAJ News