Zimbabwe proves journalist Mhlanga Right, Rwandan regime smears jailed opposition leader, condemning Zimbabwe’s state-sponsored violence

In a Feb. 18 address at the @GenevaSummit, Mhlanga denounced how the regime in Zimbabwe has weaponized the law to crush dissent and manipulated the constitution to consolidate power. He called for global diplomatic pressure on the regime.

The next day, information minister Zhemu Soda called Mhlanga’s speech “malicious” and invoked draconian provisions in Zimbabwe’s penal code that criminalize criticism of the regime under the vague guise of patriotism and national sovereignty. The same day, lawmaker Sengezo Tshabangu publicly announced his intention to introduce a parliamentary motion to strip Mhlanga of his passport for “unpatriotic conduct.”

The Rwandan regime and dictator Paul Kagame have repeatedly issued public smears and chilling threats against Ingabire, who was previously imprisoned between 2011 and 2018 on baseless charges. On Feb. 21, in a speech to the Rwandan community in Paris, Rwandan Minister for National Unity and Civic Engagement Jean Damascène Bizimana branded Ingabire, a peaceful advocate for democracy, a “terrorist.”

The comments came ten days before Ingabire’s appearance before the Supreme Court to challenge the legal basis for her detention. She has been imprisoned since June 2025 on trumped-up charges, based on her alleged role in a training where her supporters read Serbian activist @SrdjaPopovic’s book “Blueprint for Revolution” on nonviolent civil resistance.

In November 2025, HRF submitted a joint petition with Freedom Now and the Lantos Foundation to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Ingabire’s behalf. HRF calls on the WGAD to investigate her case, determine that her detention is arbitrary, and demand her immediate release.

HRF condemns the brutal state-sponsored violence that injured Zimbabwean opposition leader Lovemore Madhuku and members of his party. The attack comes amid a violent campaign of suppression against those opposed to the extension of the rule of dictator Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Sunday’s attack is one incident in a wider campaign of repression against critics of the constitutional amendment. In recent weeks, plainclothes agents suspected to be members of the security forces have abducted and beaten several of the regime’s political opponents, including NCA members Naboth Sirora and Innocent Taruona on Feb. 26 and Baird Gore of the Constitution Defenders Forum on Feb. 17.