Zimbabwe Releases American Charged With Insulting Mugabe

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HARARE, Zimbabwe — An American woman who was arrested in Zimbabwe in November over a tweet mocking Robert Mugabe, weeks before he was forced out as president, was set free on Thursday after state prosecutors failed to prepare their case.

The woman, Martha O’Donovan, 25, had been working in Harare, the capital, for the Magamba Network, a website focusing on youth activism and culture. She was charged with subverting the government and undermining the authority of the president, and faced up to 20 years in prison.

Ms. O’Donovan denied that she was responsible for the tweet, which read, “We are being led by a selfish & sick man” and was posted on an anonymous account, @matigary, that remained active after she was arrested.

The High Court ordered Ms. O’Donovan’s release on Thursday, after prosecutors said they were not prepared to provide a trial date.

“She now has her passport back, and she can travel any time — even if she may want to go to the U.S.,” said Ms. O’Donovan’s lawyer, Obey Shava, a member of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

Mr. Mugabe, who served as Zimbabwe’s leader for 37 years, was forced to step down in late November after the military seized power and put him under house arrest.

His successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has emphasized his desire to repair relations with Western governments, whose support will be crucial in obtaining assistance from international creditors. Local and international rights groups had pressed for Ms. O’Donovan’s release.

The government, could revive its effort to put Ms. O’Donovan on trial by presenting new evidence, but Linda Gatsikwa, a prosecutor, gave no indication of what the state would do.

Ms. O’Donovan, of Martinsville, N.J., and a 2014 graduate of the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, smiled and hugged friends after the court appearance but made no comment.

Her arrest, which came less than two weeks before Mr. Mugabe’s resignation, had raised fears that the Zimbabwean government was stepping up efforts to control social media before national elections scheduled for mid-2018.

The Zimbabwean government, which had established a cybersecurity ministry a month before her arrest, began cracking down on social media in 2016 after activists using WhatsApp and Facebook organized street protests against Mr. Mugabe’s government.

In November, prosecutors said that Ms. O’Donovan had “systematically sought to incite political unrest through the expansion, development and use of a sophisticated network of social media platforms as well as running some Twitter accounts.”

Prosecutors said that she had access to the anonymous account that had posted the offensive tweet, which included a photograph of Mr. Mugabe, 93, with an illustration of a catheter, but they presented little evidence to support their accusation that she was responsible.