Zimbabwe - April 2023

On 5 April, a magistrate’s court in Harare convicted opposition politician Fadzayi Mahere of ‘communicating falsehoods’, under a legal provision that was declared unconstitutional by Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court in 2014. The conviction, for which Mahere was sentenced to a $500 USD fine, related to a tweet she shared that incorrectly alleged that a police officer had killed a baby. Mahere’s case is one of a number of recent prosecutions targeting government critics, which have led commentators to accuse the government of using the courts to intimidate its opponents ahead of the general elections to be held later this year.            

Sources: The Guardian, Constitutional Court Judgement, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria