A Zimbabwean court on Wednesday released Jameson Timba, interim leader of a faction within the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), along with 34 other activists, after sentencing them to suspended prison terms for alleged unlawful assembly.
Magistrate Collet Ncube handed Timba a two-year suspended sentence, while the activists received lesser fully suspended sentences. The group had been detained for over five months following their arrest at Timba’s residence in Harare, where authorities accused them of intending to incite violence and breach the peace.
While the court convicted the group last week, it acquitted 30 other individuals arrested during the same incident. Charges of disturbing the peace were dismissed earlier in September.
Timba’s lawyers maintained that those gathered at his residence were attending a barbecue to commemorate the Day of the African Child, a recognized event on the African Union calendar.
Amnesty International condemned the arrests and detentions as part of a broader pattern of repression by Zimbabwean authorities under President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The organization also called for investigations into allegations of torture during the activists’ time in custody.
Critics accuse Mnangagwa’s ruling ZANU-PF party of continuing a legacy of stifling opposition through police and judicial systems, echoing tactics employed during the 37-year rule of former President Robert Mugabe, whom Mnangagwa replaced in a 2017 coup.
