Harare, September 2 — Zimbabwe’s renowned freelance journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume have both been released on bail this Wednesday after spending over a month in the country’s notorious Chikurubi maximum jail after the pair faced charges of inciting public violence ahead of the foiled Jul.31 anti-government protests.
Hopewell and Ngarivhume were arrested separately on 20 July this year.
He (Hopewell) was granted 10,000 Zimbabwean dollars bail, an equivalent of approximately 120 USD by high court Judge Tawanda Chitapi while Ngarivhume was granted 50,000 Zimbabwean dollars bail, also an equivalent of approximately 602 USD by another high court judge Justice Siyabona Msithu.
As part of his bail condition, Hopewell was ordered to continue residing at his last given address and to report in person to the police thrice weekly while he was also ordered to continue residing at his last given address.
But, both Ngarivhume and Hopewell, with their cases presided over by two different judges, were also barred from using their Twitter social media accounts as part of their bail conditions.
Hopewell’s freedom bid follows an appeal he had lodged with the High Court after several failed attempts to secure his freedom.
“The appeal be and is hereby granted. The reasons given by the magistrate in denying him (Hopewell) bail are hereby set aside,” High Court judge Tawanda Chitapi said in his ruling Wednesday.
Both Hopewell and Ngarivhume faced charges of incitement to commit public violence or alternatively, incitement to participate in a gathering with the intent to promote public violence by posting messages through their Twitter handles between March 1 and July 20.
As such, it was alleged in court that while in Harare city centre, Ngarivhume posted several messages on Twitter in an attempt to influence many people to engage in public violence or participate in a gathering that would disturb peace in the country.
The release on bail of the two follows a recent joint statement issued by heads of missions from Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, UK, and the USA, denouncing rights violations by the Zimbabwe regime.
