25-year-old Martha O’Donovan was arrested in Zimbabwe for insulting the country’s president on Twitter. O’Donovan is charged with undermining the authority of or insulting the president and subverting a constitutionally elected government. The charges can carry a sentence of up to 20 years. She allegedly insulted Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe by tweeting, “We are being led by a selfish and sick man” and a retweet that described the President as a goblin. The police then obtained a warrant for O’Donovan’s home, where they arrested her and confiscated her laptop. O’Donovan called the charges “baseless and malicious.”
Martha O’Donovan works for Magamba TV, which is a local news network aimed at Zimbabwean youth. She is being represented by Obey Shava of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. Shava told the press that police claim the tweets emanated from her IT address but her Twitter account is private. A public affairs officer at the US Embassy in Harare said that they are aware of the situation.
This is the first arrest since Mugabe’s government created a ministry responsible for cybersecurity, threat detection, and mitigation in October. The ministry was created after the government began to face massive protests against the 93-year-old president, who has ruled the country since it’s independence in 1980.
Source: aol.com
