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American woman arrested in Zimbabwe over alleged Mugabe goblin tweet
Source: The Guardian
American woman arrested in Zimbabwe over alleged Mugabe goblin tweet
Jason Burke Africa correspondent
Friday 3 November 2017 15.12 GMT
Zimbabwean police have arrested a US citizen for allegedly insulting Robert Mugabe on Twitter, weeks after the president appointed a cybersecurity minister charged with policing social media.
Martha O’Donovan was detained on Friday morning, a US embassy spokesman told the Associated Press. Her lawyer, Obey Shava, said police had not yet charged her but claimed that “tweets emanating from her IT address are insulting to the president”.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, an activist group, said in a statement that the offending tweet referred to a “goblin whose wife and stepson bought a Rolls Royce”.
Police confiscated her laptop and transferred O’Donovan, who works for the Harare-based Magamba TV, to the city’s central police station, ZLHR said.
The tweet did not refer to Mugabe by name, ZLHR said, but Russell Goreraza, who is Mugabe’s stepson with his wife, Grace, is thought to be the only individual to have recently imported two Rolls-Royce vehicles into the country, local media reported.
-snip-
Jason Burke Africa correspondent
Friday 3 November 2017 15.12 GMT
Zimbabwean police have arrested a US citizen for allegedly insulting Robert Mugabe on Twitter, weeks after the president appointed a cybersecurity minister charged with policing social media.
Martha O’Donovan was detained on Friday morning, a US embassy spokesman told the Associated Press. Her lawyer, Obey Shava, said police had not yet charged her but claimed that “tweets emanating from her IT address are insulting to the president”.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, an activist group, said in a statement that the offending tweet referred to a “goblin whose wife and stepson bought a Rolls Royce”.
Police confiscated her laptop and transferred O’Donovan, who works for the Harare-based Magamba TV, to the city’s central police station, ZLHR said.
Link to tweet
The tweet did not refer to Mugabe by name, ZLHR said, but Russell Goreraza, who is Mugabe’s stepson with his wife, Grace, is thought to be the only individual to have recently imported two Rolls-Royce vehicles into the country, local media reported.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/03/martha-odonovan-arrested-zimbabwe-alleged-mugabe-goblin-tweet-harare
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