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outcome of their appeal.
Gwisai, a University of Zimbabwe law lecturer, together with Hopewell Gumbo (33), Welcome Zimuto (26),
Antoneta Choto (37), Tatenda Mombeyarara (30) and Edson Chakuma (39) were last Wednesday fined US$500 each and ordered to perform 420 hours of community service.
The six last week filed an appeal challenging their conviction and sentence.
The six were supposed to make the application yesterday through their lawyer Mr Alec Muchadehama but their matter was deferred to today before provincial magistrate Mr Kudakwashe Jarabini after it emerged that Mr Edmore Nyazamba from the Attorney General’s Office was attending to other business at the High Court.
The six were arrested at a meeting at which they were watching video footage of the Arab Spring last year in the city centre.
The six argue that Mr Jarabini erred in convicting them.
They argue that the indictment did not clearly spell out which subsections of paragraphs of Section 188 and 36 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act, the appellants contravened and for which the magistrate found them guilty as charged Gwisai and his accomplices also say Section 188 of the Act is unconstitutional and cannot reasonably be expected in a democratic society adding that it is in contravention of the Declaration of Rights in the Constitution.
The group argues that the court erred in relying on the evidence of a “dishonest” witness (Detective Jonathan Shoko) who they said lied about his identity.
They also argued that video footage of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings were shown to kill time and the magistrate erred in holding that they were shown to arouse feelings of hostility.
“The emphasis on the video by the magistrate was therefore totally misplaced and untoward hence the submission that the court was taking a subjective view of the facts and had descended into the arena.
“If the appellants were to be convicted for watching the video or showing it, and if that were a crime, as the magistrate held, then they were supposed to be
convicted of treason.’’
They argue that the sentence imposed by the trial magistrate imposes a sense of shock, outrage and horror.
The six are seeking an order to quash both the conviction and sentence.
They say in the event the conviction is upheld the sentence must be set aside and the six fined US$500 (or 30 days in jail).
The offence was committed on February 19 last year at Zimbabwe Labour Centre, at 43 Julius Nyerere Way in Harare.
Gwisai, a co-ordinator of the International Socialist Organisation, and his accomplices agreed to forcibly and to a serious extent disturb peace, security or order of the public in Zimbabwe.
They planned to mobilise people to revolt against the Government and demand the resignation of President Mugabe in the manner Egyptians had deposed their president Hosni Mubarak.
Online Reporter