Free Republic

KAMPALA, Uganda—There is a terrible but revealing irony about the arrest and detention in Zimbabwe of 25-year-old American Martha O’Donovan. Over the weekend, tens of thousands of the country’s citizens took to the streets of the capital, Harare, many of them brandishing placards denouncing 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe. His army is in revolt, his wife and chosen successor, 52-year-old Grace Mugabe, is no longer seen in public, and even though he’s trying to hold on, his party and countless citizens of the country that he’s ruled for 37 years clearly want the president gone, gone, gone. Back on Nov. 3,...

An American woman charged with subversion in Zimbabwe for allegedly insulting the president on Twitter as a "sick man" made her first court appearance on Saturday as her lawyers disputed the charges that carry up to 20 years in prison. A lawyer for 25-year-old Martha O'Donovan, Rose Hanzi, told the court that the subversion charge was illegal because police did not inform O'Donovan of it when she was taken from her home in the capital, Harare, on Friday morning. The court disagreed, and O'Donovan will remain in custody over the weekend. Hanzi said they will approach the High Court for...

Zimbabwean police detained a U.S. citizen and seized her laptop on Friday on suspicion of calling President Robert Mugabe a “Goblin” on Twitter, the first arrest since the creation of a Ministry of Cyber Security last month, her lawyers said. US citizen Martha O'Donovan has been arrested in Zimbabwe for allegedly insulting President Robert Mugabe on Twitter. In a tweet, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) group said Ms O’Donovan – the manager of Magamba TV, an online-based satirical video outlet – was the first person to be arrested on such grounds since the ministry was formed. Police arrested...