{"id":9167,"date":"2012-03-22T03:23:53","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T01:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/zimbabwe-court-fines-activists-for-anti-mugabe-plot\/"},"modified":"2012-03-22T03:23:53","modified_gmt":"2012-03-22T01:23:53","slug":"zimbabwe-court-fines-activists-for-anti-mugabe-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/zimbabwe-court-fines-activists-for-anti-mugabe-plot\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe court fines activists for anti-Mugabe plot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Nelson Banya<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">HARARE, March 21<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; Six Zimbabwean activists<br \/>\nconvicted of airing Arab Spring videos as part of a plot against<br \/>\nPresident Robert Mugabe were fined and sentenced to community<br \/>\nservice on Wednesday, a milder punishment  than the 10 years<br \/>\njail that could have been handed down.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The group, led by Munyaradzi Gwisai, a former opposition<br \/>\nlawmaker in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai&#8217;s party, was found<br \/>\nguilty on Monday of &#8220;conspiracy to commit acts of public<br \/>\nviolence&#8221; against Mugabe.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini said the activists had<br \/>\nconspired to commit a serious crime, but fined them $500 each<br \/>\nand ordered them to perform 420 hours of community service as<br \/>\nthey had not carried out their plans.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The court has taken cognisance of the fact that the accused<br \/>\ndidn&#8217;t get to the full commission of the crime,&#8221; Jarabini said.<br \/>\n&#8220;The court has chosen a more compassionate approach to the<br \/>\naccused,&#8221; he said, as sighs of relief were heard in the packed<br \/>\ncourtroom.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>All defendants have denied the charges. Defence lawyers said<br \/>\nthey would appeal against both the conviction and sentence.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A small group of students aligned to Gwisai&#8217;s radical<br \/>\nInternational Socialist Organisation clashed with police outside<br \/>\nthe courtroom as they sang revolutionary songs denouncing Mugabe<br \/>\nand the police.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A Reuters witness saw four students being led away by the<br \/>\npolice as the rest of the group fled.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a people&#8217;s victory,&#8221; one student shouted.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nelson Banya HARARE, March 21 (Reuters) &#8211; Six Zimbabwean activists convicted of airing Arab Spring videos as part of a plot against President Robert Mugabe were fined and sentenced to community service on Wednesday, a milder punishment than the 10 years jail that could have been handed down. The group, led by Munyaradzi Gwisai, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}