HARARE – Parliament has passed a controversial law that could punish citizens with death for harming the country’s sovereignty and national interest. The Patriotic law, which was pushed through by the ruling party Zanu PF on Wednesday and will now be put before Senate, has been strongly criticised by the opposition and human rights groups.
The law covers a wide range of offences, such as participating in meetings inside and outside Zimbabwe on issues of military intervention, subverting, overthrowing or overturning the constitutional government, or on economic sanctions and trade boycotts. The law also requires citizens to get government approval before engaging with foreign officials or embassies. This could affect the work of journalists and activists.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said on Thursday that the law is “unclear, ambiguous, imprecise and likely to be misused by the law enforcement”. The group said that the law does not define sovereignty and national interest, which could be used to criminalise the legitimate conduct of those expressing their freedom of expression.
The law also has extra-territorial effect, meaning that one could be charged in Zimbabwe for allegedly committing the crimes abroad.
ZLHR added that they are “deeply concerned about the harsh penalties for deliberately injuring the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe, which include the death penalty, long imprisonment, loss of citizenship, ban from registering or voting as a voter for at least five years”.
ZLHR said that the death penalty in the law violates section 48 of the national constitution, which only prescribes capital punishment for murder in aggravating circumstances.
The government defends the law and compares it to the Logan Act in the United States, which prohibits unauthorised American citizens from negotiating with foreign governments that have a dispute with the United States.
