The High Court has overturned the conviction and sentence of former Mount Pleasant MP and lawyer Fadzayi Mahere for communicating a false statement in 2021 by Harare Magistrate Taurai Manuwere.
On Wednesday, 28 February, Justice Benjamin Chikowero and Justice Pisirayi Kwenda ruled that Mahere had been charged, tried and convicted on the basis of a non-existent law upheld her appeal and quashed the conviction and sentence.
According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), Mahere had in April 2023, been fined US$500 or imprisonment for three months after she was convicted of undermining public confidence in a law enforcement agency, the Prison Service or the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe.
Mahere was arrested on 11 January 2021 by the police, who charged her with publishing or communicating a false statement with the intention of inciting or promoting public disorder or public violence or endangering public safety as defined in section 31(a)(i) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act alternatively section 31(a)(iii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly undermining public confidence in a law enforcement agency, the Prison Service or the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe.
She was accused of sharing a message on the X social media platform wherein she allegedly communicated that a ZRP officer had beaten to death a baby that was strapped on its mother’s back, a claim which prosecutors said was false.
