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Zimbabwe activist pastor found not guilty of subversion
Activist Pastor Evan Mawarire who is facing charges of attempting to subvert the government arrives at the High Court in Harare, Zimbabwe, November 29, 2017. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
29/11/2017
HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean court found activist pastor Evan Mawarire not guilty of subversion on Wednesday in a case that has been scrutinized as a barometer of independence of the courts under new President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mawarire has been a strident critic of former President Robert Mugabe, who was forced to resign after 37 years in power last week under pressure from the army and ruling ZANU-PF party.
"This could be evidence of a freer Zimbabwe but this case had no legs to stand on. I think a lot more needs to be seen to determine whether this is a free judiciary going forward," Mawarire told reporters in the court room soon after Judge Priscilla Chigumba's judgment.
Critics allege that Zimbabwe's courts for decades have been used as a tool of political repression.
There was a sigh of relief from the handful of people in the court when the ruling was made.
The pastor's #ThisFlag movement had been a thorn in the side of the former Mugabe government. In 2016, he led a stay-at-home demonstration that lead to the first of his several arrests.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Writing by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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