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ZIMBABWE: Court grants US citizen bail after Mugabe ‘Goblin’ tweet

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Temporary reprieve has come the way of Martha O‘Donovan, a US citizen who works for Magamba TV after a high court granted her $1,000 bail over charges of subversion and insulting President Robert Mugabe on social media platform, Twitter.

The American journalist according to reports was granted bail in her absence on the basis that the state failed to exhibit the contents of the alleged tweets- an outcome which pleased her lawyer Obey Shava of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, a legal NGO.

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

“I am very happy that justice has been done, I’m glad that my client has been vindicated because we have always argued that she was a perfect candidate for bail,” he said outside the courthouse.

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.

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”.

 

 

 

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