Mugabe

An American woman, Martha O’Donovan charged with subversion in Zimbabwe for allegedly insulting President Robert Mugabe on Twitter has been freed after paying the required $1,000 bail.

O’Donovan who is scheduled to return to the court on Wednesday next week was arrested and accused of calling the 93-year-old Mugabe a ‘sick man’ in a tweet where she included the image of the President with a catheter.

O’Donovan, who has denied the charges as “malicious and baseless” faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted for subversion.

She also faces a charge of undermining the authority of or insulting a president which carries the penalty of a year in prison.

Her arrest came shortly after the appointment of Patrick Chimamasa as the nation’s Cybersecurity Minister by Mugabe–a move which has been widely criticised by analysts as targeting the social media.