American arrested for alleged insult
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe police have arrested a U.S. citizen for allegedly insulting President Robert Mugabe on Twitter, lawyers and a U.S. Embassy official said Friday.
Police picked up Martha O’Donovan on Friday morning, embassy spokesman David McGuire said.
Police accuse O’Donovan of tweeting “We are being led by a selfish and sick man,” from the Twitter handle @matigary, said her lawyer, Obey Shava with the group Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
The tweet had a photo illustration of the 93-year-old Mugabe with a catheter, the charge sheet says.
O’Donovan has been charged with undermining the authority of or insulting the president, Shava said.
“I deny the allegations levelled against me as baseless and malicious,” O’Donovan said in a signed statement.
O’Donovan had been working with local social media outlet Magamba TV, whose target audience is youth, Shava said. The outlet describes itself as producing “satirical comedy sensations.”
Mugabe last month appointed a minister for cybersecurity, a move criticized by activists as aimed at clamping down on social media users. Zimbabwe was shaken last year by the country’s biggest antigovernment protests in a decade, which were largely fuelled by social media posts.
In a tweet, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said O’Donovan was the first arrest since the new ministry was created.
The group says it has represented nearly 200 people charged for allegedly insulting Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of state, in recent years.
Frustration is growing in the once-prosperous southern African nation as the economy collapses.
“Concerned to hear of Martha O’Donovan’s arrest and ongoing detention. #Mugabe must stop arresting journalists #FreeMartha,” the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists tweeted Friday.