The process was grueling and dragged on for two years – the pronouncement of the verdict had also been postponed several times. But now the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Court in the capital Harare has found the author Tsitsi Dangarembga guilty on all charges. This was confirmed by Olaf Koschke, the artist’s husband, to the German Press Agency (dpa). The allegations are: public incitement to violence, breach of the peace and bigotry.
Sentences for Dangarembga still uncertain
Barbara Groeblinghoff, a trial observer at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Harare, told the dpa that Dangarembga’s defense attorneys had put forward mitigating circumstances and argued that imprisonment should be avoided. Instead, the court should sentence Dangarembga to serve the community. The public prosecutor’s office had no objection, according to Groeblinghoff.
The presiding judge will still decide on the sentence. The Anti-Corruption Court reports directly to President Emmerson Mnangagwa. A total of 32 times Dangarembga and Barnes had to appear there.
Julie Barnes and Tsitsi Dangarembga had to appear in court each time
The winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade was arrested and ultimately charged because she and her colleague Julie Barnes joined a peaceful demonstration last July. The population had previously been instructed to stay at home. Hundreds of police officers and soldiers were deployed to enforce the measures.
The southern African country has been in a deep economic and political crisis since longtime President Robert Mugabe was ousted and his former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa took power in 2017.
Dangarembga and Barnes carried placards calling for reform, the release of jailed journalists and “a better Zimbabwe for all”. Allegedly, the women were guilty of trespassing, bigotry and incitement to violence. An allegation that in the past has led to the arrests of several other protesters and activists who have expressed criticism of the government. For example, the investigative journalist Hopewell Chi’Nono, who revealed in 2020 that members of the government had money to fight the pandemic disappear into their own pockets and had called for protests. He was then held in custody for a month and was mistreated.
Tsitsi Dangarembga’s legal counsel: Chris Mhike, Beatrice Mtetwa and Doug Coltart
More and more people classified as critical of the government
Organization estimates “Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights” (Zimbabwean human rights lawyers) According to more than 1,000 people have been tried for various human rights-related “crimes” in the last three years, some of them sentenced to long prison terms. “It’s exhausting to have to appear in court again and again,” said Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Doug Coltart, who has represented several activists in Harare in court in recent years Has. “Often there are onerous bail conditions and people are put under house arrest. Their passports are taken from them, sometimes even their title deeds are taken away. That’s a real way of punishing someone before they’ve even been convicted.”
Dangarembga has been fighting corruption and promoting reforms in her home country for years
The trials of Dangarembga and other activists are being conducted in Zimbabwe before the so-called Anti-Corruption Court. Established in 2018 as a department of the Supreme Court, it aims to speed up the hearing of corruption cases and is the only one not to report to the Justice Department but directly to the President’s office. “It is really a farce that the trials are taking place before an anti-corruption court,” said attorney Coltart. “It seems that the rules are different in this court. Bails are denied more frequently and routinely.”
Massive restrictions on freedom
Zimbabwe’s constitution guarantees the right to peaceful demonstration, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, but the application of the law is different, according to Christopher Mhike: “The curtailment of freedoms in our system has a chilling effect on citizens’ ability to express themselves freely “Tsitsi Dangarembga’s lawyer told DW. “While the constitution speaks of freedom of speech in Zimbabwe, many have to wonder if there is freedom after speech.”
Dangarembga herself made a similar statement in an interview with DW last year: “There is a joke in Zimbabwe: There is freedom BEFORE expressing one’s opinion, but there is no freedom AFTER one’s expressing one’s opinion,” said the author, who was born in 1959. Still, she doesn’t want to turn her back on her country: “That’s life in Zimbabwe. I’m a Zimbabwean and I live in Zimbabwe. And that seems to be part of life in Zimbabwe.”
This article has been adapted from English.
Assistance: Annabelle Steffes-Halmer
Last updated: September 29, 2022
