(LONDON) A teacher who encouraged a government overthrow in Zimbabwe on social media from the UK was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday under Britain’s anti-terrorism laws.
In early December 2019, 52-year-old William Chinyanga live-streamed a series of speeches on his Facebook page protesting the government in power in Zimbabwe.
In it, he called for bombing gas stations and tank trucks, blowing up bridges, burning police vehicles and attacking security forces.
The videos were reported to UK counter-terrorism police, who arrested William Chinyanga at his home in north London in February 2020.
The political activist, who was born in Zimbabwe and was granted the right to stay in the UK after applying for asylum, was charged in January 2021.
At his trial in November, he was found guilty by a jury of two counts of incitement to terrorist acts. He was acquitted on two other counts.
At sentencing in London, Judge Ian Dove pointed out that there was no evidence that anyone had acted in Zimbabwe in response to calls from William Chinyanga on Facebook.
But he did not reflect on “whether others would be incited to commit acts of terrorism”, the judge said. “You were ordering people to violently attack the authorities in Zimbabwe and use arson to destroy government property and infrastructure,” he added.
William Chinyanga’s aim, the judge said, was to overthrow the government by force and “create a war” in the southern African country.
The counter-terrorism police chief thanked the person who reported William Chinyanga.
“Dangerous speech of this nature can and does have harmful consequences in the real world,” he commented.
Zimbabwe, a country independent from the United Kingdom in 1980, has been plagued for years by a dying economy, weighed down by galloping inflation, endemic power cuts and glaring poverty.