News / National
Zimbabwe 'facebook' trial latest
20 Sep 2011 at 07:01hrs | Views
Bulawayo magistrate Rose Dube will on Tuesday make a ruling on whether or not the matter in which a Bulawayo man, Vikas Mavhudzi, is being charged with allegedly posting a message on PM Morgan Tsvangirai's Facebook wall, encouraging him to topple President Mugabe through mass protests should go for trial.
This follows an application by Mavhudzi's lawyer, Lizwe Jamela of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, to remove his client from remand arguing there was no evidence warranting the matter to go for trial since the police last week conceded they had failed to access the message which formed the charges.
However, despite the revelations the prosecution made submissions that the matter should go for trial without the message being retrieved.
Mavhudzi's shock arrest in February came after he posted a message of support on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Facebook page. The two line message referred to the civic uprisings seen in Egypt earlier this year, which led to the fall of the Hosni Mubarak administration there.
The message said: "I am overwhelmed, don't know what to say Mr PM. What happened in Egypt is sending shockwaves to all dictators around the world. No weapon but unity of purpose. Worth emulating, hey."
Mavhudzi was then arrested over this message and charged with encouraging Tsvangirai to take over the government by 'unconstitutional' means or 'usurping' the functions of the government.
The State's case is expected to lie in demonstrating that Mavhudzi contravened the country's security laws by posting the Facebook message.
Observers meanwhile have said that Mavhudzi is being used as part of ZANU PF's ongoing intimidation tactics, to scare off other people from posting anti-ZANU PF messages on social networking website.
Websites like Facebook and Twitter have proven to be an effective weapon against dictatorial regimes, as was seen in the wave of public unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.
This follows an application by Mavhudzi's lawyer, Lizwe Jamela of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, to remove his client from remand arguing there was no evidence warranting the matter to go for trial since the police last week conceded they had failed to access the message which formed the charges.
However, despite the revelations the prosecution made submissions that the matter should go for trial without the message being retrieved.
Mavhudzi's shock arrest in February came after he posted a message of support on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Facebook page. The two line message referred to the civic uprisings seen in Egypt earlier this year, which led to the fall of the Hosni Mubarak administration there.
The message said: "I am overwhelmed, don't know what to say Mr PM. What happened in Egypt is sending shockwaves to all dictators around the world. No weapon but unity of purpose. Worth emulating, hey."
Mavhudzi was then arrested over this message and charged with encouraging Tsvangirai to take over the government by 'unconstitutional' means or 'usurping' the functions of the government.
The State's case is expected to lie in demonstrating that Mavhudzi contravened the country's security laws by posting the Facebook message.
Observers meanwhile have said that Mavhudzi is being used as part of ZANU PF's ongoing intimidation tactics, to scare off other people from posting anti-ZANU PF messages on social networking website.
Websites like Facebook and Twitter have proven to be an effective weapon against dictatorial regimes, as was seen in the wave of public unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.
Source - Byo24News
