US citizen faces 20-yr jail term after Mugabe ‘Goblin’ tweet

A day after Martha O‘Donovan, a US citizen who works for Magamba TV, was arrested and detained by police who accused her of insulting President Robert Mugabe, the journalist was paraded in court and may spend up to 20 years in jail if found guilty of subversion.

Her lawyers had earlier tendered an appeal arguing that police only informed Martha of the more serious charges of attempting to subvert the government hours after her arrest, thereby violating the constitution.

But the plea was struck out by the magistrate who said she was satisfied that the officers complied with the law.

The employee who works with Magamba TV (which describes itself as Zimbabwe’s leading producer of political satires) was arrested, detained and arraigned on suspicion of calling Mugabe a “Goblin” on social media platform, Twitter.

Read also: Zambian president warns of chaos if he is prevented from re-election

According to her lawyers, Martha was arrested during a dawn raid at her home in Harare with cops seizing her laptop and other materials.

Her lawyer added that the police were armed with a search warrant linked to an investigation of a case of “undermining authority of or insulting the President”.

Central to their investigation, it said, was a post on Martha’s Twitter feed referring to a “Goblin” whose wife and step-sons had imported a Rolls Royce, an apparent reference to 93-year-old Mugabe even though he was not named.

A U.S. State Department official said on Sunday that the government was “aware of reports that a U.S. citizen was detained in Zimbabwe. We stand ready to provide appropriate consular assistance for U.S. citizens”.

Martha’s arrest after the post which also called Mugabe a “selfish and sick man”, comes after the creation of a Ministry of Cyber Security last month.

Two months ago, Pastor Evans Mawarire of the #ThisFlag movement was detained in similar circumstances after he was arrested for a Facebook video he posted lambasting the government of Mugabe over its economic policies.

According to his lawyer Harrison Nkomo, his client Evans was nabbed by cops as he stepped down from his pulpit and charged with subversion, which carries a maximum term of life imprisonment, for his Facebook video.

 

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