Zimbabwe court frees opposition leader on suspended sentence after 5 months in detention

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A Zimbabwean court has freed an opposition leader and 34 activists who had been in detention for more than five months. A magistrate on Wednesday imposed wholly suspended sentences on Jameson Timba, interim leader of a faction of the splintered Citizens Coalition for Change opposition party, and the activists. The magistrate last week found them guilty of participating in a gathering with the intent to promote violence, breaches of peace or bigotry. Thirty others who had been detained with Timba were acquitted. Government critics and human rights groups say the detention was part of a prolonged clampdown on dissent by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.