HARARE – Jailed Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume has been denied bail pending appeal by the High Court.
Ngarivhume, an MDC Alliance principal during the 2018 elections, had applied for bail pending appeal on a conviction from a charge of Incitement. Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono tweeted:
Zimbabwean political prisoner, Jacob Ngarivhume has been denied bail pending appeal by Justice Benjamin Chikowero.
Ngarivhume had applied for bail pending appeal on a conviction from a charge of Incitement. It means that he remains in prison until his appeal is heard, which can take forever.
However he can apply for bail at the Supreme Court if the Supreme Court agrees that his case meets the threshold for doing so. Jacob Ngarivhume called for protests against Corruption in 2020.
He was arrested on 20 July 2020 and was convicted this year and sent to jail for 4 years with one year suspended.
Ngarivhume was in April 2023 found guilty of inciting public violence; using his Twitter handle to call for the 31st July 2020 nationwide anti-government protests.
Despite claiming he did not own the alleged Twitter account, the former MDC Alliance principal was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment, with one year suspended conditionally.
In sentencing Ngarivhume, magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka said she took into consideration that Ngarivhume “is a first offender” adding that “a fine or suspended sentence would not deter further offenders, a sentence must be meaningful.
However, his lawyer, Lovemore Madhuku argued that the magistrate who convicted and sentenced his client erred in finding him guilty of an offence he had not committed.
More: Pindula News
