June On 24 June the trial of Regis Kandawasvika, a Chiredzi man who allegedly undermined the authority of President Robert Mugabe after he allegedly struck the octogenarian leader’s portrait in a bar in frustration over failing to secure employment, was due to commence on Tuesday 25 June at Chiredzi Magistrates Court. Kandawasvika, 35 years-old was arrested on Tuesday 30 October 2012, and charged with contravening Section 33 (2) (b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act after he allegedly held President Mugabe accountable for failing to secure employment despite having obtained six Ordinary Level subjects.. He allegedly said the following; “Ndiri kutambura nokuda kwehutongi hwezimudhara iri Robert Mugabe. Ndine masabhujekiti six pa”O” Level kasi handina basa rekuita. Handidi kana kumboriona zimudhara irori. Ikozvino gwendo runo riri kuenda kamwe chete”, which the police translated to mean “I am suffering because of the ruling of this old man Cde Robert Mugabe. I have six “O” level subjects but I have no job. I don’t want to see this old man. This time he is going one way”. The State says the alleged utterances were unlawful, abusive, indecent and obscene. On 4 June, Police in Mutare freed three Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) officials whom they had taken in for questioning over some information, education & communication materials after the intervention of ZLHR. Police officers interrogated Reverend Stephen Maengamhuru, the human rights grassroots organisation’s Regional Coordinator, his assistant Cecelia Marovha and Victor Dhliwayo after alleging that they were in possession of some promotional materials on human rights issues which they intended to use at a workshop planned for Honde Valley on Tuesday. The police released the promotional materials, which they had seized, which included T-shirts and pamphlets and retained possession of some promotional Compact Discs, which they advised Nyamaropa that they would want to conduct further scrutiny on them. On 3 June, police in Hwange summoned ZESN officials to answer charges of allegedly conducting voter education in the province. Sergeant Dzvimbu who spoke to the ZESN Director made the telephone call. Later in the day yesterday, two police details visited the Hwange offices of a ZESN member organisation, Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) offices and arbitrarily confiscated hundreds of ZESN posters and flyers meant for distribution in the province. The materials were confiscated following unsubstantiated and false allegations that ZESN had conducted voter education from the 13th to the 17th of May 2013 without the approval and accreditation from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).The materials that were confiscated included posters and flyers meant to encourage Zimbabweans to register to vote in the July elections. According to Mr Settie Ncube, the ZESN taskforce Chairperson for Matabeleland North, the two police officers who were in plain clothes demanded to know the persons responsible for distributing the materials before confiscating the posters and flyers. The police officers did not have a search warrant. On 21 June Harare Magistrate Don Ndirowei acquitted two human rights campaigners; ZimRights Director Okay, his workmate Leo Chamahwinya and ZimRights as an organisation charged with forgery and conspiracy to commit fraud or publishing false statements prejudicial to the State under Sections 31, 136 and 137 of the Criminal Law Code for allegedly attempting to defraud the Registrar General’s Office by forging and manufacturing counterfeit copies of certificates of voter registration between May 2012 and January 2013. ZLHR applied for discharge at the close of the State case. Magistrate Ndirowei freed the human rights activists after ruling that there was no evidence linking them to the commission of the alleged offence. May On 21 May, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) convicted three police officers for allegedly breaching the Police Act after they reportedly attended an MDC-T political rally held in Mashonaland Central Province in April. Courage Manyengavana, Marshal Zindoga and Lovemore Mupedzapasi were tried and convicted for contravening the Police Act for allegedly acting in a manner, which brought disrespect to the ZRP. The ZRP claimed that the three police officers attended an MDC-T rally held at Mushumbi Business Centre in Mashonaland Central Province on Sunday 27 April 2013, 10