Harare, Zimbabwe CNN —Award-winning Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga has been found guilty of staging a protest with the intent of inciting public violence, a court in the capital Harare ruled Thursday. Dangarembga, a fierce critic of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government was arrested in 2020 for marching while holding a placard demanding reforms. Inside the Harare courtroom, Dangarembga and Barnes held hands as magistrate Barbara Mateko handed down her judgment. PEN International, an association of writers, which awarded Dangarembga a Pinter Prize in 2021, also condemned the sentence in a statement. “The conviction today of award-winning writer, filmmaker, and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga and her co-accused, Julie Barnes, by a Zimbabwe Court is a travesty of justice.

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