This is how it goes in Zimbabwe. The police raid someone’s house looking for weapons of mass uprising and what do they take away, a Very dangerous car.

Armed police officers today at around 5am, raided the residence of MDC Chief of Staff, Abisha Nyanguwo in Harare, claiming to search for weapons of war and mass destruction before they impounded his Isuzu double cab vehicle.
- From an MDC press statement, 22 March 2012

Regional Magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini sentenced Munyaradzi Gwisai and five other co-accused to 420 hours of community service and $500 fine for conspiring to incite public violence with a view to overthrowing the unity government. In passing the sentence the Magistrate noted that the penalty should not be outrageous much to the relief of the packed courtroom and against the 10-year prison sentence which the state had previously urged for. Immediately after passing the sentence defence lawyer Alec Muchadehama said he was going to appeal against both the conviction and sentence. Armed police quickly stopped the celebrations and members of Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) were arrested for being too vocal in their celebrations.

Munyaradzi Gwisai and the five other activists who were convicted of “conspiracy to commit acts of public violence” on Monday will not serve time in jail.

Today, they were sentenced to a USD 500 fine and two years of prison each – but the first year of the prison sentence was suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour, and the other year was suspended provided each completes 420 hours.

The Magistrate says the court took a compassionate approach. The defence will appeal the conviction and the community service.

In court today the defence for Munyaradzi Gwisai +5 argued for a fine rather than a custodial sentence. The fine can be up to $2,000 each – lawyer argued for $500 each. The prison term can be up to 10 years. The sentence to be handed down tomorrow afternoon.

Since the Magistrate said yesterday, in handing down the guilty verdict, “I see no iota of evidence that any Zimbabwean ever contemplated a Tunisian and Egyptian revolution,” let’s hope reason prevails on him at last, and the convicted six are sentenced only to a fine.

Zimbabwe ISO leader Munyaradzi Gwisai and five other activists have been found guilty by the Zimbabwean government of “inciting public disorder”, after they organised a film showing and discussion at the Labour Centre in Harare about the Egyptian uprising in February last year. The conviction gives the Zimbabwe government a green light to persecute and prosecute ordinary people for watching a film, conversing about current affairs, or discussing events as they unfold in another country.

The ISO activists will be sentenced today and face up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

You may well ask what any of us can do in the face of this authoritarianism. Whilst it may be difficult to show your outrage publicly for fear of reprisal – which is very real – we urge you to continue to inform yourselves about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe and other countries, like Egypt and Syria.

The fact is thousands of Zimbabweans were watching footage of the Egyptian uprising last year. And thousands of Zimbabweans were discussing those events at the office, in their homes and over cold ones in pubs. The majority of people discussing the Arab uprising probably all agreed on one thing: that similar events were unlikely to happen in Zimbabwe. But still we all carried on discussing and arguing. Debate and discourse is a central part of all our lives.

We have a fundamental right to freedom of expression.

Kubatana urges you to use exercise it whenever and wherever you can.

We are all Munyaradzi Gwisai.

Harare magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini yesterday delivered a ruling in the Munyaradzi Gwisai and five others’ case in which they are accused of inciting public violence. Mr. Jarabini found the accused guilty on charges of inciting public violence. Before he found the accused guilty, Mr. Jarabini addressed the court and he said, “It is not an offence to view video footage, the motive behind viewing of the footage of events which took place in Egypt and Tunisia on that particular day was not for a good cause and was meant to instill feelings of hostility against the government.”

Gwisai is jointly charged with fellow activists Welcome Zimuto, Hopewell Gumbo, Antonater Choto, Tatenda Mombeyarara, and Edson Chakuma. The charges arose from a meeting, which was convened at the offices of the International Socialist Organisation – Zimbabwe Chapter in Harare in February 2011. Forty-five people were arrested during the meeting and later charged with treason. Treason charges were later dropped and 39 people were released in March after spending close three weeks in prison.  The state later preferred a lesser charged of inciting public violence after High Court Judge Samuel Nyakudya ruled that the case against Gwisai and his colleagues was weak.

” I see no iota of evidence that any Zimbabwean ever contemplated a Tunisian and Egyptian revolution,” Nyakudya said in his ruling.

The case was referred back to the magistrates Courts for trial after the accused had been granted $2000.00 bail each by the High Court. Defence led by prominent human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama successfully sought for an adjournment to today to prepare for mitigation. Under section 36 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act, public violence attracts a prison sentence of up to ten years, a fine or both.