Man jailed for forwarding text message containing a joke about Pres. Mugabe to neighbours
The offending joke was a
message falsely attributed to Ecocash, Zimbabwe's mobile money transfer
scheme, which said the president had deposited $1 500 (R20 745) into
their account.
The newspaper said the message read:
"Ecocash
Transfer Confirmation: 1,500 US from Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Thank you
for supporting ZANU-PF."
Maposa
was being charged under a section of Zimbabwe's Postal and
Telecommunications Act prohibiting the sending of messages the sender
"knows to be false."
The report said Maposa insisted he did not mean to make his neighbours "anxious or nervous".
"I was intending to share a social media joke," he said.
Although
Maposa was not being prosecuted under Zimbabwe's infamous anti-insult
laws, it remains a crime to insult Mugabe, who has been in power since
1980. Arrests are frequently reported under these laws, often for
comments made on social media site.
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