Harare – Evan Mawarire, the pastor who created the #This Flag social media site last year, was granted “conditional” bail in the Harare High Court earlier Wednesday. He was arrested when he unexpectedly returned to Zimbabwe on February 1 after fleeing to the US last year.
Mawarire who was a part-time pastor in Zimbabwe and found work as a master of ceremonies became popular with many urban Zimbabweans when he went on line with a Zimbabwe flag draped over his shoulders last year and complained about the Zanu PF government in online videos and encouraged people to go on strike along with thousands of other civil servants. He complained to a growing social media community that he could no longer afford to pay his children’s school fees. He was arrested and released on a technicality. And he then fled to the US.
After he returned home unexpectedly he was immediately arrested at the Harare International Airport and was denied bail in the Magistrate’s Court.
He will now be released providing he can find R4 200 bail money, reports to police twice a week and hands in his passport with a warning not to interfere with the justice process.
He is charged with trying to "subvert a constitutionally elected” government which carries the possibility of a 22 year sentence and two other lesser charges.