Zimbabwe opposition official fined $200 over false election results

Zimbabwe’s former finance minister and senior opposition politician Tendai Biti was on Monday convicted and fined $200 for unlawfully and falsely announcing the results of last year’s presidential election that was won by Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Biti, vice chairman of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, last year announced that MDC leader Nelson Chamisa had won the presidential election.

Biti, also a leading human rights lawyer, fled the country to neighboring Zambia in August citing threats to his life. He was deported back to Zimbabwe days later and arrested for allegedly violating the electoral law.

Main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa and his party, the Movement for Democratic Change, have rejected the election results, claiming the electoral agency rigged the vote to ensure a win for President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Magistrate Gloria Takundwa said state prosecutors had proved the case against Biti, whom she said would be jailed for six months if he commits a similar offense in the next five years.

Biti’s lawyer Alec Muchadema, who paid the $200 fine, said he would appeal against the conviction and sentence.

“I am absolutely innocent and we will be appealing that decision. It’s unacceptable what is happening, we will keep on fighting,” Biti told reporters outside the courthouse.

Chamisa said Biti was being persecuted for telling the truth and that the former finance minister was one of many MDC leaders being targeted by Mnangagwa’s government in a bid to cripple the opposition. The government has denied the charge.

Zimbabwe has sunk deeper into political turmoil and economic decline since the elections, the first to be held without former longtime ruler Robert Mugabe. At one time the elections were viewed by both local and the international community as key to turning the country around after decades of repression.