Zimbabwean opposition politician Job Sikhala is set to appeal his conviction and sentence for public violence incitement charges, his lawyer, Harrison Nkomo said on Tuesday.
Sikhala and co-accused, Godfrey Sithole were on Tuesday, 30 January, handed wholly suspended two-year prison sentences by Harare magistrate Tafadzwa Miti.
Sithole was released in November 2022 on bail, along with 14 others, but Sikhala was denied bail several times and spent nearly 600 days in pre-trial detention.
Addressing reporters at the Harare Magistrates Court, Nkomo said they were filing a High Court appeal against both conviction and sentence. He said:
The prosecution should not have happened in the first place; we must not glorify wrong things.
My respective view is that his arrest was not supposed to have been effected. Equally, the prosecution and subsequent conviction.
That being the case, we are taking the matter up with the High Court on appeal.
What we want is an acquittal, not a conviction with a lighter sentence. No, we disagree with that.
Sikhala was arrested on 21 August 2020 in Tynwald North and was charged with incitement to commit public violence or alternatively, incitement to participate in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of peace or bigotry.
He was eventually granted $50 000 bail by High Court Judge, Justice Erica Ndewere on 22 September 2020.
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Sikhala was also ordered to surrender his passport, to report three times a week to St Mary’s police station and not to post audio or videos on social media.
He was again arrested in June 2022 and charged with inciting violence when he allegedly threatened to avenge the murder of an opposition activist, Moreblessing Ali. A Harare court described him as a habitual offender.
Following his arrest for the violence in Nyatsime, Sikhala was denied bail several times which resulted in him spending 595 days in pre-trial detention.
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