Zimbabwe prize-winning novelist acquitted over anti-government protest

FILE PHOTO: Zimbabwean novelist, Tsitsi Dangarembga, whose latest book "This Mournable Body" has been nominated for a Booker Prize, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Harare, Zimbabwe, August 4, 2020. REUTERS/MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) - Acclaimed Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga was acquitted on Monday by the country's High Court for staging an anti-government protest in 2020, for which she had initially received a six-month suspended jail sentence and a fine.

Dangarembga was found guilty by a lower court in 2022 on charges of participating in a public gathering with intent to incite public violence while breaking COVID-19 protocols, after a protest criticising the government's efforts to deal with corruption and a struggling economy in July 2020. Dozens of political activists were arrested at the time.