News / Local
Man in court for offensive Facebook page
19 Mar 2014 at 14:04hrs | Views
A former employee of prominent Bulawayo businessman, Raj Modi, who owns a chain of supermarkets under the Spar franchise, allegedly created a Facebook page to insult his former employer whom he accused of practicing "slavery" at the workplace, a court heard Tuesday.
Million Mukiri (30) - who used to work at Bellevue Spar in the city - appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Chrispen Mberewere and pleaded not guilty to contravening Section 88 of the Postal and Telecommunications Act which criminalises offensive or false telephone messages.
Modi told the court that he reported his ex-employee to the police after he received a tip off from an anonymous caller informing him about the Facebook page titled Ilifa lethu, nhaka yedu, allegedly created by Mukiri.
Part of the page states the aim as being that of a, "Concerned Zimbabwean fighting slavery in the 21st century, exposing false pretenders in our motherland (Zimbabwe) at Bellevue Spar Bulawayo, Zimbabwe under Raj Modi."
It is the state's case that sometime in July 2013 Modi discovered that someone had created a Facebook page titled Ilifa lethu, nhaka yedu on which were posted messages offensive to the businessman.
Modi was not amused by this and reported the matter to the police, resulting in investigations being carried out.
A search was conducted at Mukiri's house in Tshabalala where police seized an Apple i-phone, two laptops and three desktop computers.
Grant Thornton, a forensic auditors company, was engaged to carry out investigations on confiscated phones and laptops.
The investigations revealed that the i-phone contained several artifacts indicating that some of the posts on the Facebook page were made from the phone.
Extracts from the Facebook page allegedly posted by Mukiri that were exhibited in court Tuesday contained offensive words, accusing Modi of being an unfair employer and of being immoral.
In his defence outline Mukiri denied posting offensive messages between July 4 and September 21 last year as stated.
He argued that he never owned an i-phone and that he only browsed through the Facebook page and did not at anytime compose and post the defamatory messages on the platform. The matter was postponed to May 7, 2014 as forensic expert the state wishes to have testify in court is out of the country on duty.
Million Mukiri (30) - who used to work at Bellevue Spar in the city - appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Chrispen Mberewere and pleaded not guilty to contravening Section 88 of the Postal and Telecommunications Act which criminalises offensive or false telephone messages.
Modi told the court that he reported his ex-employee to the police after he received a tip off from an anonymous caller informing him about the Facebook page titled Ilifa lethu, nhaka yedu, allegedly created by Mukiri.
Part of the page states the aim as being that of a, "Concerned Zimbabwean fighting slavery in the 21st century, exposing false pretenders in our motherland (Zimbabwe) at Bellevue Spar Bulawayo, Zimbabwe under Raj Modi."
It is the state's case that sometime in July 2013 Modi discovered that someone had created a Facebook page titled Ilifa lethu, nhaka yedu on which were posted messages offensive to the businessman.
Modi was not amused by this and reported the matter to the police, resulting in investigations being carried out.
A search was conducted at Mukiri's house in Tshabalala where police seized an Apple i-phone, two laptops and three desktop computers.
Grant Thornton, a forensic auditors company, was engaged to carry out investigations on confiscated phones and laptops.
The investigations revealed that the i-phone contained several artifacts indicating that some of the posts on the Facebook page were made from the phone.
Extracts from the Facebook page allegedly posted by Mukiri that were exhibited in court Tuesday contained offensive words, accusing Modi of being an unfair employer and of being immoral.
In his defence outline Mukiri denied posting offensive messages between July 4 and September 21 last year as stated.
He argued that he never owned an i-phone and that he only browsed through the Facebook page and did not at anytime compose and post the defamatory messages on the platform. The matter was postponed to May 7, 2014 as forensic expert the state wishes to have testify in court is out of the country on duty.
Source - zimmail
