Trial of man accused of ‘insulting’ ZEC’s Chigumba on Twitter collapses

HARARE – The trial of a man accused of retweeting a parody account of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) boss Priscilla Chigumba has collapsed.

Night Tawona Shadaya, 25, had been charged with criminal insult after he retweeted a fake Twitter account in the name of Chigumba.

But on Tuesday, magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa removed Shadaya from remand after Chigumba – the complainant – failed to come to court for a second time.

Noble Chinhanu of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), representing Shadaya, told magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa there was no guarantee that if Shadaya was given a new court date Chigumba would turn up.

Mugwagwa released Shadaya from remand and advised prosecutors to proceed by way of summons should they wish to revive the charges.

It was just days after the July 30 elections when Shadaya retweeted the parody account.

The tweet said: “I can’t wait for the election fiasco to come to an end. I could do with a holiday and some good sex. My body needs a break.”

Chigumba has denied owning a Twitter account.

Posting on Twitter under the hashtag #CaseDismissed, Shadaya thanked his lawyer Chinhanu and the ZLHR “for being the hope for the ordinary man against an unfair system.”

The post Trial of man accused of ‘insulting’ ZEC’s Chigumba on Twitter collapses appeared first on Zimbabwe News Now.

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