Zimbabwe Opposition Politician Arrested for Article Critical of Mugabe

The leader of a breakaway faction of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party Arthur Mutambara, was arrested Sunday for ridiculing President Robert Mugabe in an article published last month.

Mutambara, who heads the smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested from his Harare home by detectives from the police’s Law and Order section.

His lawyer said the charges stem from an article Mutambara wrote and was published in a local weekly in April that questioned the legitimacy of President Mugabe’s government after losing last March’s general elections to the larger MDC faction headed by Morgan Tsvangirai.

Davison Maruziva, editor of The Standard weekly that carried the article, was arrested last month on similar charges.

Mutambara has pledged his faction’s support to Tsvangirai during this month’s presidential election run-off. Tsvangirai squares off against President Mugabe in the run-off set for June 27.

Source African Press Agency

Net News Publisher