Police in Zimbabwe charged an American woman over a tweet that appeared to insult President Robert Mugabe, her lawyer has said.<\/p>\n
Martha O’Donovan, 25, is accused of referring to Mr Mugabe as “selfish man and sick man”, a charge she denies.<\/p>\n
She faces charges of insulting the president and plotting to overthrow the government, her lawyer told US media.<\/p>\n
Her arrest appears to be the first of its kind since the country’s cyber ministry was created last month.<\/p>\n
The charge of plotting to overthrow the government carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Ms O’Donovan, who reportedly manages Magamba TV, an online-based satirical video outlet, was “arrested during a dawn raid at her Harare residence,” the\u00a0Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
Police accuse her of tweeting: “We are being led by a selfish and sick man,” from the Twitter handle @matigary, said Obey Shava, a lawyer with ZLHR who is representing her.<\/p>\n
The tweet in question, dated 11 October, includes an illustration of a man using a catheter, as well as a photo of Mr Mugabe with a circle drawn around his midsection.<\/p>\n
The US embassy in Zimbabwe did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n
In a statement to police seen by the Reuters and Associated Press news agencies, Ms O’Donovan is said to have denied “the allegations being levelled against me as baseless and malicious”.<\/p>\n
ZLHR said that Ms O’Donovan’s arrest marks the “first Twitter-related arrest” after the Zimbabwean government created a Ministry of Cyber Security, Threat Detection and Mitigation last month.<\/p>\n
Critics say the new ministry is a government effort to crack down on social media users.<\/p>\n
“This arrest marks the start of a sinister new chapter in the Zimbabwean government’s clampdown on freedom of speech, and the new battleground is social media,” said Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, Muleya Mwananyanda.<\/p>\n
Mr Mugabe, 93, has led Zimbabwe for the last three decades.<\/p>\n
Last month, the\u00a0World Health Organization (WHO) revoked his appointment\u00a0as a goodwill ambassador after a widespread outcry over human rights concerns.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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