HARARE – Kuwadzana MP Charlton Hwende (MDC), charged with treason this week, was freed on $3,000 bail on Friday – but a High Court judge ordered that he should stay away from social media as part of his bail conditions.
Meanwhile, Mkoba MP and the MDC’s organising secretary Amos Chibaya was on Friday acquitted on incitement of violence charges, following widespread protests over a huge rise in fuel prices in January.
Gweru magistrate Clarity Maphosa acquitted Chibaya after a trial, but the MP remains charged with treason over an alleged plot to overthrow the government.
Hwende was arrested on Tuesday after returning from Namibia, where he sought treatment from an undisclosed ailment.
Justice Davison Foroma set bail at $3,000, ordered Hwende to surrender his passport and to report twice weekly to the police. The legislator, who chairs the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Information Communication Technology, must also desist from commenting on social media until the end of his trial, the judge said.
The MDC says 11 Members of Parliament have been arrested in a military-led crackdown after President Emmerson Mnangagwa decreed a 168 percent increase in the price of fuel.
Hwende and another MDC MP Joana Mamombe have been charged with treason, along with activist pastor Evan Mawarire; Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition director Rashid Mahiya and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions pair of secretary general Peter Mutasa, and president Japhet Moyo.
Mahiya was granted $1,000 bail on Tuesday by the High Court. He was released from Chikurubi Maximum Prison on Friday.
