Thursday, February 24, 2011
Robert Mugabe
In an attempt to head off a potential uprising like those in the north of the African continent, the Zimbabwe regime arrested dozens of students, trade unionists and political activists who gathered to watch television coverage of events in Tunisia and Egypt.
Forty-six people are now in custody for participating in an illegal political meeting where they watched Al Jazeera and BBC News stories “as a way of motivating them to subvert a constitutionally elected government,” according to police.
Lawyers representing the accused have warned their clients that they may be charged with attempting to overthrow 87-year-old dictator Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980. The punishment for such a crime is 20 years in prison.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Arrests in Zimbabwe for Seeing Videos (by Celia Dugger, New York Times)
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