Internet user Vikas Mavhudzi has been detained for the past month on a charge of advocating the government’s overthrow in a message he posted on Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Facebook page. He is to remain in prison until his trial, for which no date has yet been set, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported
Mavhudzi, 39, posted a message highlighting the impact of Egypt’s revolution and indicating his support for peaceful protests. “I am overwhelmed,” the message said. “What happened in Egypt is sending shockwaves to dictators around the world. No weapon but unity of purpose worth emulating, hey.”
Mavhudzi was arrested on February 24 in the southwestern city of Bulawayo, where a judge refused to release him on bail on the grounds that he posed a threat to public safety. He has appealed to the High Court.
RSF called for his immediate release and the withdrawal of the charges against him.
The authorities in Zimbabwe, like those in Equatorial Guinea and Sudan, have clearly been shaken by the scale of the unrest in the Arab world and are being extremely vigilant about content circulating online and inside the country.
A total of 45 government opponents including Munyaradzi Gwisai, the head of a group called the International Socialist Organisation, were arrested on treason charges on February 19 for watching video footage of the Egyptian protests at a public meeting. They have been freed pending trial but are still facing a possible death sentence.
