Big Brother Africa Winner Idris Sultan Detained ‘for Bullying the President’

Idris Sultan has been thrown into jail again, this time for allegedly bullying Tanzanian President John Magufuli.

According to My Joy Online, this was confirmed by the BBA star’s lawyer, Bennedict Ishabakaki, who said that the star was detained on Tuesday and has been denied bail.

Apparently, the police questioned Sultan on Thursday for allegedly violating the country’s controversial Cybercrimes Act, Mr Ishabakaki said–a drama that started after he shared a clip showing of himself laughing at an old photograph of President Magufuli. The president was wearing a suit that appears to be a few sizes too large.

The video went viral in Tanzania.

“They are questioning him for allegedly contravening section 23 of the act. In a nutshell, they [the police] are accusing him of bullying the president through that video clip,” Mr Ishabakaki told the press. “But I strongly believe, as a comedian, my client is only doing satire, and satire can be political as well.”

The country’s law states that “someone should not “initiate or send any electronic communication using a computer system to another person with intent to coerce, intimidate, harass or cause emotional distress”.

And so, if convicted, the comedian could face imprisonment for at least three years or a fine of 5m Tanzanian shillings ($2,200; £1,800) – or both.

The famous Tanzanian comedian Idris Sultan (@IdrisSultan) is jailed after posting a video in which he was laughing at a picture of the President of Tanzania.

See the video:
pic.twitter.com/pDZYUJvNAg

— Comrade Désiré (@ncambirwa) May 19, 2020

Only in October of 2019, he was briefly held after sharing photo-shopped face-swap pictures of himself and the president.