By Staff Reporter
LEADER of the opposition Transform Zimbabwe party, Jacob Ngarivhume, has been acquitted on charges related to inciting public violence by the High Court.
The accusations stemmed from his call for nationwide anti-government protests in July 2020.
Ngarivhume had previously been found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison in April by the Magistrate Court, however, appealed against both the conviction and the sentence.
In delivering the verdict, High Court Judge Pisirayi Kwenda overturned the lower court’s conviction, ruling that the politician was not guilty. The acquittal came as the state failed to present sufficient evidence.
“It would not be right to uphold the conviction. In the result the appeal is allowed and the conviction is quashed,” he said.
Speaking to journalists, Ngarivhume’s lawyer Professor Lovemore Madhuku said the state had no basis at all.
“The High Court has set aside the conviction of Jacob Ngarivhume, so as we speak he is now a very free man.
“They agreed with us in every respect that the Magistrates court did not have a basis at all, so he had his eight months wasted as we can say.
“He is not guilty and is walking out a free man so he will have his Christmas at home.
“They did not have any evidence linking our client to the Twitter account used and also the court had to observe that the magistrate convicted him in respect of a twitter account that was different from the twitter account that the state was parading around, so the state did accept that they did not have any strong case in,” Madhuku said.
