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| Tanzania President Magufuli |
A Tanzanian lecturer
has been charged with insulting President John Magufuli in a WhatsApp message,
a senior police official said on Friday, bringing the number of people charged
under a tough new cybercrimes law to 10. Magufuli, nicknamed "the
bulldozer" for pushing through his policies, has won some praise from
Western donors for anti-corruption drives and cutting wasteful government
spending since coming to power in November. But opponents accuse
him of becoming increasingly authoritarian, undermining democracy by curbing
political activity and restricting live television coverage of parliamentary
sessions.
Insulting the president was made a criminal offense in Tanzania under
a cybercrimes law passed last year, punishable by up to three years in jail, a
fine of around $3,000, or both. "The senior
university lecturer was arraigned in court yesterday, and I think he was later
released on bail," Julius Mjengi, police chief of the south-west Tanzanian
town of Iringa told Reuters by telephone.
Police said the lecturer was charged
with offenses under Tanzania's strict cybercrimes law. The lecturer denies the
charges. "The number of
people who have been arrested across the country thus far for insulting the
president has now risen to 10," Tanzanian newspaper Mwananchi said in an
article on Friday. Those who have faced trial for insulting Magufuli in recent
months include students and opposition politicians.
A U.S. aid agency in
March canceled nearly $500 million of funding for Tanzania partly on concerns
over enforcement of the new cybercrimes law. The U.S. government's Millennium
Challenge Corporation said Tanzania has "engaged in a pattern of actions
inconsistent with MCC's eligibility criteria" hence the decision to
suspend its partnership with the East African nation. (Star)