Suspect gets bail in Mnangagwa defamation case
Publish date: 05 November 2018
Issue Number: 798
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Zimbabwe
A Zimbabwean court has granted bail to a man detained for insulting President Emmerson Mnangagwa while testifying before a commission probing the fatal shooting of six civilians during post-election protests in August. Prosecutors said Wisdom Mkwananzi pointed at Mnangagwa's official portrait hung on the wall of a hall where the commission was hearing evidence from witnesses, and said: ‘I am an orphan because of this man. He killed my parents.’ A report on the News24 site notes that he accused Mnangagwa of leading Gukurahundi, a government crackdown in the 1980s during which rights groups say at least 20 000 suspected government opponents were killed. Mkwananzi was released on $200 bail.