NJ woman faces 20 years in African prison for tweeting about president

[Gefn]

HARARE, Zimbabwe — An activist from Bridgewater faces 20 years in prison over a Twitter post about the president of Zimbabwe.

Martha O’Donovan, 25, was in court on Saturday morning for her tweet that called President Robert Mugabe a “sick man.” The tweet included a picture showing the 93-year-old with a catheter. The government claims the message represents an attempt to undermine the authority of Mugabe.

She was arrested on Friday at her home in Harare, the African nation’s capital city.  According to her legal team on Saturday, her application to dismiss the case was denied and she has to remain in jail until at least Nov. 15. Her lawyers will apply for bail on Monday.

O’Donovan is from the Martinsville section of Bridgewater, according to her Facebook page, and a graduate of Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School.

The New York University graduate works for the Magamba Network, a network working to bring change the political situation Zimbabwe using, according to its website, “new media, activism and innovation.”

Earlier this year, she presented a talk at a Re:Publica digital culture conference on “How Zimbabweans Rebel Online.”

She also manages a pop-up bar called Mar’s Bar.

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http://nj1015.com/nj-woman-faces-20-years-in-african-prison-for-tweeting-about-president/

[Smokin Joe]

Mmmmmm kay. Welcome to the world of PC gone wild. Dictatorships do that.

[endicom]

If I found myself in Zimbabwe, I'd go mute.

[Smokin Joe]

If I found myself in Zimbabwe, I'd go mute.

If I found myself in Zimbwabe, I'd be quietly looking for a way to leave.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

If I found myself in Zimbwabe, I'd be quietly looking for a way to leave.

Yup. If all else fails, put your shoes on and git.

If your shoes fail, go barefoot but get going.

[Frank Cannon]

Snowflake just found out how the real world works. So used to Twitting away at this or that right wing injustice here in the US gave her the false impression doing that anywhere in the world was cool. Enjoy your next 20 hellhole years stupid.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

You gotta have a death wish to try social justicing Zimbabwe from the inside.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Snowflake just found out how the real world works. So used to Twitting away at this or that right wing injustice here in the US gave her the false impression doing that anywhere in the world was cool. Enjoy your next 20 hellhole years stupid.

In Zimbabwe?

I doubt she'd survive longer than 3 years, 4 years tops, on the inside there.

She doesn't look like someone whose survived a lot of no holds/weapons barred street fights.

[Frank Cannon]

You gotta have a death wish to try social justicing Zimbabwe from the inside.

Or spent your life in an education system that convinced you the whole world is a Utopia and the US is a nasty shithole.

[DB]

Zimbabwe is simply prosecuting "hate speech", something the left fully endorses... This is what SJWs say they want, prosecution of hate speech, and the US first amendment is outdated we're told where free speech is violence against others and all...

Duh...

[DB]

Snowflake just found out how the real world works. So used to Twitting away at this or that right wing injustice here in the US gave her the false impression doing that anywhere in the world was cool. Enjoy your next 20 hellhole years stupid.

I'm sure they'll enjoy their white meat in prison there... Stupid has consequences in most parts of the world...

[Gefn]

Story just made the Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/04/an-american-was-just-arrest-in-zimbabwe-for-mean-tweets-about-mugabe/?utm_term=.e23eaa129268

[Smokin Joe]

Expect leftists howling for government intervention in 5...4...3...

[Suppressed]

How pathetic, that courage is now labeled "stupidity" by those who sit on their butt and don't do anything to help fight tyranny.

Were the Resistance members who fought the Nazis "stupid" because they lost their lives?

Were the anti-communist authors behind the Iron Curtain "stupid" because of what happened to them?

Are those who smuggle things into North Korea "stupid" because some of them get caught?


Mugabe is despicable, and this woman has brought more pressure on him than anyone else recently.  In his legal battle against her, he's in the position of having to admit he's a "goblin" if he wants to say that her "goblin" statement was an attack on the presidency, for example.  And he's now exposed himself as being unable to take criticism, knocking down his claims of having a fair government.

Yes, there will be consequences to her, but rather than cheer the evil, we should be in support of this reporter who had the courage to fight the evil.

[Oceander]

Trump also wants to make it easier for people such as himself to punish their detractors.  Remember how he wishes to relax the libel laws.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

How pathetic, that courage is now labeled "stupidity" by those who sit on their butt and don't do anything to help fight tyranny.

Were the Resistance members who fought the Nazis "stupid" because they lost their lives?

Were the anti-communist authors behind the Iron Curtain "stupid" because of what happened to them?

Are those who smuggle things into North Korea "stupid" because some of them get caught?


Mugabe is despicable, and this woman has brought more pressure on him than anyone else recently.  In his legal battle against her, he's in the position of having to admit he's a "goblin" if he wants to say that her "goblin" statement was an attack on the presidency, for example.  And he's now exposed himself as being unable to take criticism, knocking down his claims of having a fair government.

Yes, there will be consequences to her, but rather than cheer the evil, we should be in support of this reporter who had the courage to fight the evil.

You're conflating courage with wishful thinking.

This woman had no business being there to begin with and wasn't bright enough to realize it.

She's not 'Resistance Fighter'.

She's not an ex-military contractor.

She's a spoiled, leftist indoctrinated dreamer.

Courage is picking a fight you have a chance - albeit How slim - of winning.

She had no chance of changing anything. Period.

The world is well aware of what a despicable pest hole Zimbabwe has become.

She ignored it and tried to stand in the face of a tsunami.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Even Ghandi had the fact that it was the British and not the Germans in India, Chance, on his side.

It has been said, and rightly so, that he never would have gotten away with it if it were the Germans driving the trains on those railroad tracks he sat on.

The British Engineers stopped the train for him.

The Germans would not have stopped.

And the Mugabe Regime's fist is a lot sterner than that.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

If she wanted to die a pointless, heroic in her own mind, death as a voice for freedom, she made the right choice.

But she was never going to Change an African Dictatorship.

I'm surprised they even bothered to arrest and try her, instead of just killing her out of hand and dragging her out of town to let the four footed African Sanitary Corp dispose of her remains.

[Major Confusion]

If I found myself in Zimbwabe, I'd be quietly looking for a way to leave.

As quickly as possible.

[DemolitionMan]

President Mugabe probably has the most corrupt government in the world. He will not let whites even run to office. Their Supreme Court is the final arbiter of a person's case. There is no appeal.His cronies in all three branches of government

[Smokin Joe]

If she wanted to die a pointless, heroic in her own mind, death as a voice for freedom, she made the right choice.

But she was never going to Change an African Dictatorship.

I'm surprised they even bothered to arrest and try her, instead of just killing her out of hand and dragging her out of town to let the four footed African Sanitary Corp dispose of her remains.

I believe President Mugabe is counting on the Liberals here to raise such a hue and cry that the Administration will be pressured into some gesture to get her back, which could be a boon to a country reaping the benefits of Mugabe's government. She is more valuable alive than dead.

[Frank Cannon]

Expect leftists howling for government intervention in 5...4...3...

Hollywood is in shambles. The Rat party is mired in Russia now. The MSM has been discredited to the point people ignore them. I don't think there is an apparatus left for mobilization.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

I believe President Mugabe is counting on the Liberals here to raise such a hue and cry that the Administration will be pressured into some gesture to get her back, which could be a boon to a country reaping the benefits of Mugabe's government. She is more valuable alive than dead.

I think you gotta point there.

She was more than an enemy of the State.

They kept her alive because she was a Dollar Sign.