Criticising Mugabe is a crime
2004-11-17 10:29
Special Report
A classical music presenter for the BBC has been arrested and is in custody in Zimbabwe.
Harare - An unemployed Zimbabwean was sentenced to 140 hours of community service for calling President Robert Mugabe a dictator and saying British Prime Minister Tony Blair was a liberator.
Reason Tafirei, 31, was arrested on November 10 and kept in police cells until his trial on Monday and Tuesday on a charge of "undermining the authority of the president."
That offence is included in the draconian Public Order and Security Act, a law widely condemned by human rights lawyers and groups in Zimbabwe and internationally.
Douglas Saungweme, an official of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party heard Tafirei tell other passengers on a bus that "Mugabe is a dictator who rules by the sword while Tony Blair is a liberator."
Pleaded forgiveness
Saungweme ordered the bus driver to go to the police, who arrested Tafirei.
At his trial, Tafirei, who could not afford a lawyer, pleaded guilty.
"I plead for forgiveness," he told Magistrate Shelton Jura in Harare's Chitungwiza suburb. "The truth is I committed the crime through shouting these words. May you please be merciful."
Jura said: "A wholly suspended sentence would meet the justice of the case."
He imposed an eight month jail term, half of which was suspended on condition Tafirei commit no similar offence in the next five years, the other half on condition he completes the community service at a school. He will likely clean and do other janitorial duties during his service.
Mugabe, 80, and in power since 1980 independence, is facing widespread discontent over runaway inflation, unemployment and food shortages. Mugabe claims mounting opposition is a British conspiracy to reverse the redistribution of 5 000 formerly white owned farms to black Zimbabweans.
- AP