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Zimbabwe Activists Convicted over Egypt Protst Lecture
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Dan Clore
Mar 22, 2012, 4:26:20 AM3/22/12
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17437324
19 March 2012 Last updated at 12:50 ET
Zimbabwe activists convicted over Egypt protest lecture
A Zimbabwean court has convicted six activists of inciting public
violence for discussing the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
The activists were arrested in February last year as they attended a
lecture about the North African protests.
They had been initially charged with treason and faced the death penalty.
But the charges were later reduced, and they now could be imprisoned for
up to 10 years. The activists deny the charges, describing them as "silly".
Sentencing is now scheduled for Tuesday, but the activists have already
indicated that they plan to appeal.
Charges have been dropped against 40 other activists arrested at the
same time.
'Political harassment'
University of Zimbabwe law lecturer Munyaradzi Gwisai, a former MP for
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was among those found guilty
of inciting public violence to topple President Robert Mugabe by the
Harare court on Monday.
The case centred on Gwisai's seminar on 19 February 2011, during which
videos of the mass protests in Egypt were shown.
The seminar asked "what lessons can be learnt" - which the prosecution
said meant they were planning a similar revolt.
During the trial, Gwisai rejected the charges as "outright silly",
saying it was "a case of political harassment by the state".
The activists are linked to the International Socialist Organisation - a
group which advances the cause of poor people and the equitable
distribution of resources.
They argued that their meeting was meant to discuss pertinent issues on
how Zimbabwe's working class could learn from the developments in North
Africa.
In 2009, President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's MDC party formed a unity government intended to stabilise
the economy and introduce electoral reforms.
South African President Jacob Zuma, the region's appointed mediator on
Zimbabwe's crisis, later warned Mr Mugabe that events in North Africa
could not be ignored and that he needed to put his house in order.
Mr Zuma said issues to do with human rights needed to be addressed,
among other things.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://tinyurl.com/3tyj9cq
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17437324
19 March 2012 Last updated at 12:50 ET
Zimbabwe activists convicted over Egypt protest lecture
A Zimbabwean court has convicted six activists of inciting public
violence for discussing the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
The activists were arrested in February last year as they attended a
lecture about the North African protests.
They had been initially charged with treason and faced the death penalty.
But the charges were later reduced, and they now could be imprisoned for
up to 10 years. The activists deny the charges, describing them as "silly".
Sentencing is now scheduled for Tuesday, but the activists have already
indicated that they plan to appeal.
Charges have been dropped against 40 other activists arrested at the
same time.
'Political harassment'
University of Zimbabwe law lecturer Munyaradzi Gwisai, a former MP for
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was among those found guilty
of inciting public violence to topple President Robert Mugabe by the
Harare court on Monday.
The case centred on Gwisai's seminar on 19 February 2011, during which
videos of the mass protests in Egypt were shown.
The seminar asked "what lessons can be learnt" - which the prosecution
said meant they were planning a similar revolt.
During the trial, Gwisai rejected the charges as "outright silly",
saying it was "a case of political harassment by the state".
The activists are linked to the International Socialist Organisation - a
group which advances the cause of poor people and the equitable
distribution of resources.
They argued that their meeting was meant to discuss pertinent issues on
how Zimbabwe's working class could learn from the developments in North
Africa.
In 2009, President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's MDC party formed a unity government intended to stabilise
the economy and introduce electoral reforms.
South African President Jacob Zuma, the region's appointed mediator on
Zimbabwe's crisis, later warned Mr Mugabe that events in North Africa
could not be ignored and that he needed to put his house in order.
Mr Zuma said issues to do with human rights needed to be addressed,
among other things.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://tinyurl.com/3tyj9cq
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
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