Harare: After serving more than a year and a half in jail, opposition lawmaker Job Sikhala of Zimbabwe was freed on Tuesday after a Harare court gave him a suspended sentence.
One of the most well-known individuals to be detained in recent years in what rights organizations have called a crackdown on dissent in the southern African nation was Sikhala, 51, an outspoken and well-liked critic of the government.
Sikhala told a local television crew, “This was an act of persecution,” upon his release in the evening from a maximum-security jail on the outskirts of Harare.
“These people who have kept me in this prison for a long time should understand that my determination to pay any price for the love of my country is beyond reproach” .
Sikhala, a former politician, was found guilty last week of inciting public violence following a year-long trial that some claimed had political motivations.
Godfrey Sithole, a fellow opposition lawmaker, was also found guilty of the same offenses on Tuesday, and the two received two-year suspended sentences.
After the verdict was announced, a small group of supporters celebrated by chanting and dancing on the steps of the court.
Donning a white polo shirt, Sikhala implied that he was released by jail guards in a hurry while it was still dark.
In video footage posted by NewsHawks, he can be heard informing one of his lawyers, “These people sneaked me totally out,” while standing on the side of a dark road. “I was dumped here” .
Earlier, his attorneys said that he would be released early on Wednesday and invited friends and family to meet him outside the prison.
Sikhala and Sithole were found guilty of instigating followers to exact revenge on their political comrade Moreblessing Ali, who was killed in May 2022 by an activist from the ruling party. Sikahla refuted the accusations.
According to his attorneys, the firebrand politician has had more than 60 arrests during his lengthy and turbulent political career, so this wasn’t his first run-in with the law.
The final one was for a speech he delivered in June 2022 during a memorial service for Ali, whose disfigured body had been discovered in a well a few days before.
After filing for bail more than a dozen times in vain, he was placed under arrest and has remained there ever since.
Defense attorney Douglas Coltart said, “The fact that he has been denied bail and kept in custody all this time is a horrific injustice.”
Coltart, a leading human rights attorney in Zimbabwe, has recently run into legal issues.
He was taken into custody in September after he objected to the police questioning of two of his hospitalized customers. Last week, the charges against him were withdrawn.
Since ZANU-PF came to power in 1980, opponents have long charged the party with utilizing the legal system to stifle dissenting opinions.
Sikhala had only been found guilty once before in 2023 on accusations of obstructing justice related to the same memorial ceremony speech, despite his numerous arrests.
That decision eliminated him from the race to keep his parliamentary seat ahead of the August presidential and legislative elections.
According to the prosecution, ZANU-PF shifted the focus of investigations away from other suspects by blaming him for the murder.. Later, an appeal reversed the decision.
In an election that the opposition called rigged and that international observers claimed did not live up to democratic standards, ZANU-PF emerged victorious in both the presidential and parliamentary contests held in August.
