Insulting Mugabe
NYU grad faces 20 years in Zimbabwe prison over tweet
AN NYU GRADUATE from New Jersey is facing up to 20 years in prison in Zimbabwe on charges that she insulted the African country’s president on Twitter.
Martha O’Donovan, 25, is accused of calling 93-year-old Robert Mugabe a “selfish” and “sick” man in a post that included a photo illustration of the president with a catheter. O’Donovan was charged with insulting Mugabe and attempting to overthrow his government. The latter charge, which is referred to as subversion, carries a penalty of up to two decades behind bars.
O’Donovan, a producer for a company that makes political satire shows, has called the allegations “baseless and malicious.”
“Concerned to hear of Martha O’Donovan’s arrest and ongoing detention,” the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Africa chapter wrote on Twitter. “#Mugabe must stop arresting journalists #FreeMartha.”
The offending tweet was posted on an account with a profile picture of a man in a business suit.
Zimbabwe authorities say they tracked the Oct. 11 tweet to O’Donovan’s IP address. She was taken from her Harare home Friday morning. Additional tweets have been posted to the account since O’Donovan was jailed.
A judge on Saturday refused to toss the more serious charge of subversion.
Defense lawyer Rose Hanzi argued that the police violated the constitution by only informing O’Donovan of the charges hours after her arrest.
O’Donovan was not formally charged but will remain in police custody until her next hearing on Nov. 15. Reached by phone late Saturday, her sister declined comment.
The arrest comes a month after Mugabe appointed a cybersecurity minister — a move seen as Mugabe’s latest attempt to stifle critics of his administration. In power since 1980, Mugabe is blamed for crippling a country that was once seen as a shining example of Africa’s potential. Despite his poor health and the nation’s failing economy, Mugabe is running in next year’s election.
“This arrest marks the start of a sinister new chapter in the Zimbabwean government’s clampdown on freedom of speech, and the new battleground is social media," Amnesty International’s deputy regional director Muleya Mwananyanda said.
O’Donovan works for the Magamba Network, which aims to use “creative forms of youth activism to build a democratic & just Zimbabwe.”
“It’s one more violation of our already shrunken human rights space,” Magamba co-founder Tongai Makawa told the Los Angeles Times.