Jailed opposition lawmaker finally released

Former Zimbabwean MP Job Sikhala has been released following 595 days on pre-trial remand. A Harare magistrate sentenced Sikhala and his co-accused, MP Godfrey Sithole, to a two-year, wholly suspended term for five years. BBC News reports that Sithole was granted bail after five months on remand. They were both convicted of inciting public violence. Sikhala's lawyers say they will appeal against the conviction at the High Court. He was arrested in June 2022 and charged with encouraging the violence that followed the discovery of the dismembered body of Citizens' Coalition for Change activist Moreblessing Ali in a well, three weeks after she went missing. The news triggered violence in Ali's Chitungwiza suburb, south of Harare. Sikhala, who was the Ali family lawyer, was accused of having used social media to encourage the violence. He denied the charge.