Harare: A controversial Zimbabwean pastor, Philip Mugadza has been acquitted of criminal nuisance following an anti-government protest where he tied himself to some steel rails.
Magadza was once faced trial for “prophecy” saying former President Robert Mugabe will die on October 17, 2017.
The cleric was later to be quoted in a local daily saying God changed his mind, and postponed Mugabe’s death.
Mugadza, who had been on trial since last year, was arrested on November, 22, 2016 and charged with criminal nuisance following his protest where he chained and padlocked himself onto some fencing rails at Africa Unity Square in Harare while staging an anti-government protest.
But the clergyman, who was represented by Gift Mtisi and Kuzivakwashe Ngodza of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, was set free by Magistrate Blessing Murwisi, who found him not guilty and acquitted him after ruling that the state failed to prove its case beyond any reasonable doubt.
This is not Mugadza’s first brush with the law.
In 2005, he was arrested and detained for nearly a month after holding a placard telling Mugabe his people were suffering under his rule.
And on Zimbabwe’s Independence Dayin 2016, he gave a sermon while tied to a lamppost in Harare’s main shopping mall, saying the act symbolised the lack of freedom in the country.
