After sharing a TikTok video featuring an animated figure with President Lazarus Chakwera’s face superimposed on it performing absurd dance steps, a man in Malawi was found guilty of insulting the president.
A court on Thursday convicted Sainani Nkhoma guilty of posting the video and derogatory remarks about Chakwera in a public WhatsApp group.
Nkhoma was detained when other members of the WhatsApp group in the central town of Mponela denounced him to the police and the ruling Malawi Congress Party.
Judge Talakwanji Mndala declared that Nkhoma’s behavior was unsuitable and set the date for his sentencing for the next week. The judge issued a warning, stating that the maximum penalty would be six years in prison or a fine of about $3,500.
After the country’s Constitutional Court mandated an extraordinary rerun of the 2019 presidential election, Chakwera, 69, was elected president of the southern African nation in 2020. After major irregularities were discovered, the Constitutional Court pronounced incumbent Peter Mutharika the winner of the 2019 election.
