A 37-year-old man from Bindura, Mashonaland Central Province, Patrick Kingirasi, has been in pre-trial detention for almost three weeks following his arrest on allegations of undermining the authority of or insulting President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said that Kingirasi, an unemployed resident of Bindura, was arrested in November and has been languishing in prison for 20 days. ZLHR said:
In the political hotbed province of Mashonaland Central province, we are working on securing freedom for Patrick Kingirasi, a 37-year-old man, who was arrested last month and has been in prison for 20 days on charges of undermining the authority of or insulting President Mnangagwa.
Kingirasi, an unemployed resident of Bindura in Mashonaland Central province, has been languishing in remand prison after he was arrested by [the Zimbabwe Republic Police] on 18 November and charged with undermining the authority of or insulting President Mnangagwa.
Prosecutors alleged that Kingirasi who is represented by [Pride P Dzapasi] undermined and insulted President Mnangagwa on 2 October, when he called Edson Chibaya, a fellow Bindura resident, on his mobile phone and made some utterances to the effect that the ruling ZANU PF political party members were thieves and blamed the ruling party’s leader for causing massive suffering among citizens and for authoring the country’s economic crisis.
Kingirasi is alleged to have shouted at Chibaya in the Shona language that “Musandiitire zvechimbavha zve ZANU PF nava Mnangagwa venyu varikutipa kutambura,” which prosecuting authorities translated to mean “Do not be thievery in ZANU PF way with your Mnangagwa, who is causing us to suffer.”
Prosecutors said Kingirasi’s alleged utterances were unlawful, intentional, abusive, indecent and abusive.
The Bindura resident is the latest among dozens of Zimbabweans, who have been arrested, detained and prosecuted on charges of undermining the authority of or insulting President Mnangagwa.
During the reign of Robert Mugabe, the country’s late leader, more than 200 people were prosecuted and persecuted on the same nefarious charges of undermining the authority of or insulting the President, charges which continue to be preferred against citizens in the post-Mugabe era.
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