NYU grad facing jail for allegedly ripping ‘sick’ Mugabe

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/11/04/nyu-grad-facing-jail-for-allegedly-ripping-sick-mugabe/

NYU grad facing jail for allegedly ripping ‘sick’ Mugabe
By Tamar Lapin
November 4, 2017 | 4:14pm

Martha O'Donovan
EPA


An NYU grad working for a Zimbabwean TV station faces 20 years in the slammer for allegedly insulting the country’s controversial leader on Twitter.

A magistrates court in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, on Saturday upheld the subversion charge against New Jersey native Martha O’Donovan after she was arrested for insulting President Robert Mugabe.

O’Donovan is also charged with undermining or insulting the authority of the president. She is due back in court on Nov. 15.

Police claim the 25-year-old tweeted that Mugabe was a “very selfish and sick man,” along with a photo accusing him of using a catheter last month, but O’Donovan denies the accusation as “baseless and malicious.”

The damning tweet was posted on the account @matigary and police said they’d traced the IP address to O’Donovan. The account was active on Friday and Saturday even though O’Donovan is in custody.

O’Donovan, an alum of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, has been in Zimbabwe for a year working as a project officer for satirical outlet Magamba TV and a bartender at local watering hole, Mars Bar.

O’Donovan studied the politics of human rights and development in the African city and was the recipient of a prestigious Fulbright award after graduating in 2014.

Earlier this year, she presented a talk on “How Zimbabweans Rebel Online” at the Re-publica Digital Culture Conference.

Activists, including the Committee to Protect Journalists in Africa, have called for her release using the hashtag #FreeMartha.

Relatives refused to comment when reached at their Bridgewater, NJ, home on Saturday.

Mugabe, 93, has been increasingly uneasy about social media activists after a pastor started the #ThisFlag movement last year to organize stay-at-home demonstrations against the government. Several journalists covering the protests were arrested and assaulted and the country has a “Not Free,” rating from the Freedom of the Press website.

The tyrant was honored at an event organized by then-New York City Councilman Charles "Slap YT" Barron at City Hall in 2002, which Mayor Bill de Blasio attended.

 

[The Bobster]

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/new...n-in-Zimbabwe-released-on-bail-456647993.html

New Jersey Native Could Face 20 Years in Prison for 'Sick Man' Tweet About Zimbabwe President Mugabe
New Jersey's Martha O'Donovan is accused of calling 93-year-old Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe a 'sick man' in a tweet including an image of the president with a catheter.
By Farai Mutsaka
Published at 11:56 AM EST on Nov 10, 2017 | Updated at 12:05 PM EST on Nov 10, 2017

The U.S. woman charged with subversion in Zimbabwe over allegedly insulting President Robert Mugabe on Twitter was freed on $1,000 bail Friday.

Martha O'Donovan did not speak to reporters as she emerged from a prison in the capital, Harare, and left in a U.S. Embassy vehicle. Her lawyers also did not make any statements.

The 25-year-old New Jersey native will return to court on Wednesday.

O'Donovan is accused of calling the 93-year-old Mugabe a "sick man" in a tweet including an image of the president with a catheter.

She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted for subversion. She also faces a charge of undermining the authority of or insulting the president, which carries up to a year in prison.

O'Donovan has denied the charges as "baseless and malicious."

It was the first arrest since Mugabe last month appointed a cybersecurity minister, a move criticized by activists as targeting social media. Zimbabwe was shaken last year by the biggest anti-government protests in a decade.

Frustration is growing in the once-prosperous southern African nation as the economy collapses under Mugabe, the world's oldest head of state, who has ruled since 1980. This week his wife, Grace, moved a dramatic step closer to succeeding him as leader after Mugabe fired his deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa and accused him of plotting to take power, including through witchcraft.

Also Friday, the state-run newspaper Zimbabwe Herald newspaper reported that four people had been arrested and accused of booing the first lady at a ruling party rally over the weekend attended by the president.

O'Donovan, who has described herself as a "media activist," had been working with local social media outlet Magamba TV, which says it produces "satirical comedy sensations."

A court over the weekend dismissed an attempt by O'Donovan's lawyer to have the charge of subversion dropped. The lawyer argued that police had not notified O'Donovan of the charge at the time of her arrest at her home in the capital, Harare.

The group representing O'Donovan, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights says it has represented nearly 200 people charged for allegedly insulting Mugabe in recent years.