Zimbabwean police drags journalist to court

Zimbabwean police has arrested a journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and charged him with contempt of court for an October 28 tweet citing judges’ alleged criticism of Zimbabwean chief justice Luke Malaba.

Executive director of Zimbabwe lawyers for human rights, Rose Hanzi via her twitter handle said Chin’ono was charged with violating section 182 (1) (a) or (b) of the  criminal law codification and reform because he allegedly impaired the dignity of Malaba, as the law states.

The violation carries a penalty of up to a year in prison or fine of 1,200 Zimbabwean dollars or both, according to Zimbabwe’s law legal code.

Chin’ono was released on bail September 2 after spending 44 days in pre-trial detention on charges of incitement following his journalistic and social media coverage of alleged corruption by the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, as CPJ.

Chin’ono told CPJ that the police had told him he had violated his bail conditions, which he claimed was false since one of the conditions only precluded him from using his twitter account to incite the holding of mass demonstrations.