State security today arrested documentary filmmaker Zenzele Ndebele and charged him with “possession of offensive weapons at public gatherings,” under Section 43 of Zimbabwe’s Criminal Law Code, according to his lawyers and news reports. Security officers found a used tear gas canister in the journalist’s car when he arrived for a meeting between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and civil society organizations at State House in Bulawayo, his lawyers Nqobani Sithole and Lewis Maunze, told CPJ.
Ndebele told the security officers that he had picked up the canister at a protest and forgotten about it, Maunze said. Ndebele’s home and office were raided and he is in custody at the central police station until a scheduled court appearance tomorrow morning, local time, Maunze said. Ndebele’s camera operator, Sautsani Ali, was also detained but has since been released, according to the Zimbabwean chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).
“We urge
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