Zimbabwe: Charges of treason for 45 viewing TV unrest

Published on Thursday 24 February 2011 14:27

Treason charges facing 45 Zimbabweans arrested for watching DVDs and videos of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia were last night condemned as "outrageous" by human rights campaigners, who demanded they be freed immediately.

In a sign of growing panic from the regime of Robert Mugabe, police alleged the activists were planning similar protests in the troubled southern African country, whose president has been in power for 31 years.

Former opposition Movement for Democratic Change MP Munyaradzi Gwisai and 44 others were arrested on Saturday after police received a tip-off they were holding an "unauthorised" meeting at an office in central Harare.

Prosecutors plan to use a confiscated video machine and two DVDs of events leading to the ousting of the former Egyptian and Tunisian presidents Hosni Mubarak and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali as evidence the activists were plotting to overthrow Mr Mugabe, 87 and are guilty of treason. If convicted, they could face the death penalty.

Defence lawyer Alec Muchadehama said in court yesterday that 12 of the detainees claimed they had been beaten with broomsticks on their buttocks and the soles of their feet.

Magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi ordered them to undergo medical examinations and remanded them in custody until Monday.

Mr Mutevedzi argued that treason charges were unfounded: "What happened in Egypt and Tunisia is that people gathered and demonstrated and their leaders resigned or abdicated their seats," he said. "No treason was committed in the two countries."

If watching footage of the uprisings was treason, he said, most Zimbabweans would be guilty.

Earlier, Daniel Bekele, the Africa director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said: "The authorities should immediately free the activists and drop these outrageous charges.

"Arresting people for watching a video on the historic events in the Middle East is a transparent pretext to block peaceful criticism of the government."

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One of the women arrested spent four nights in custody with her baby before she could give the child to her husband.

Mr Mugabe's side of the two-year-old coalition government appears increasingly panicked by the turmoil in North Africa and is making it clear no copycat protests will be tolerated in Zimbabwe. Gangs loyal to the ageing president have banned even family meetings in Harare's Mbare township, a hotbed of support for the MDC.

Yesterday police stormed the campus of the National University of Science and Technology in the city of Bulawayo, claiming a student meeting to discuss fees could be "connected to the Munyaradzi Gwisai saga," a rights group reported.

Earlier this month, officials close to Mugabe tried to save face by claiming the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia were against "puppet regimes" supported by the West. But they have found it harder to explain away the revolt against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, a hero of Mugabe's. State media has given little coverage to the crisis in the oil-rich nation, while secretary for foreign affairs Joey Bimha said yesterday the situation there was "quite stable". However, Mr Bimha's claims were contradicted by a Zimbabwean international footballer based in Libya, who said his life was in danger. "The sounds of gunshots have really shaken me. It is just too much," said Cuthbert Majilila in an interview slipped onto the back page of the daily Herald, Mugabe's mouthpiece.

Activists are trying to galvanise support for a march next Tuesday to demand Mr Mugabe's resignation.

Up to 10,000 Zanu-PF supporters are expected to gather for Mugabe's birthday party tomorrow in Harare.