MDC Alliance legislator and Chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on ICT has disowned his twitter account in a bid to have his application for refusal of further remand granted by a Harare Magistrate in a matter in which he is facing charges of treason.
Through his lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, Hwende told the court that there was no proof linking Hwende to the twitter account which was used in the commission of the offence of subverting a constitutionally elected government.
“The State has no evidence to say the twitter account belongs to the accused person and we are denying the allegations because the account does not belong to him regardless of the fact that the so called alleged utterances do not constitute a crime and it is nowhere in the law that when someone complains about something then it becomes a crime,” said Nkomo.
It is alleged that he uttered words on twitter which the state said they were agitating for the removal of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Hwende is making an application for refusal of further remand.
Hwende was arrested at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe Airport on Tuesday 5 March 2019 in the morning as he was returning from Namibia.
The State through Sebastian Mutizirwa opposed the application on the basis that the twitter utterances caused violence and disturbances in the country.
“The accused person’s conduct is not provided for in the constitution and for what he said on twitter, we all witnessed what happened in January,” he said.
The police force has been arresting MDC officials and civil society leaders believed to have instigated the worst public disturbances this year.
Meanwhile, residents from his constituency thronged the gallery in solidarity.
