Munyaradzi Gwisai is a Zimbabwean politician and general coordinator of the International Socialist Organization

International Socialist Organization (Zimbabwe)

The International Socialist Organisation is a Trotskyist organisation in Zimbabwe. It is part of the International Socialist Tendency led by the British Socialist Workers Party...

 in Zimbabwe. He was a member of the parliament on a ticket of the Movement for Democratic Change from 2000 until he was expelled from the MDC in 2002 and lost the subsequent by-election.

In February 2011, Gwisai and 45 others were arrested after watching video footage of the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests

2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests

The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...

 at a public meeting and were charged with treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

, which carries the death penalty in Zimbabwe. Gwisai's wife, Shantha Bloemen, claims "the strategy of the regime at the moment is to stall it for as long as possible for propaganda value, to instill fear in people." The move has been condemned by Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

 and Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

.