HARARE, ZIMBABWE – Former Zengeza West MP Job Sikhala has been acquitted by the High Court after an appeal by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) against his conviction and sentence for communicating falsehoods on social media.
Justices Kwenda and Chikowero presided over the appeal and subsequently quashed Sikhala’s conviction and sentence. Earlier this year, Magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka had fined Sikhala and imposed a nine-month suspended prison sentence after finding him guilty of publishing falsehoods on social media.
Sikhala, represented by Harrison Nkomo, Advocate Mutero, and the ZLHR team, was convicted in February 2024. Magistrate Chakanyuka’s ruling required Sikhala to pay a fine of US$500 by March 4, 2024, or face two months in prison. The nine-month suspended sentence was conditional on him not committing a similar offense.
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In response to the original verdict, Sikhala’s lawyer Harrison Nkomo criticized the judgment, stating that his client should never have been charged under a law deemed unconstitutional by the top court.
“We are going to file our appeal as a registration of our displeasure of the judgment. We disagree with it; it has no foundation and is not sound. The law no longer exists, and it is wrong for a court to convict someone under a law that has been struck down by the Constitutional Court,” Nkomo said at the time.
The successful appeal by ZLHR highlights ongoing legal battles over the constitutionality of certain laws in Zimbabwe, particularly those related to freedom of expression and the use of social media.
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