It’s illegal to check your spouse’s phone without permission, Zimbabwe judge rules
The judge says a cellphone has been the cause of domestic disputes because couples do not respect each other’s rights to privacy.
Picture: iStock
Harare High Court Judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi reportedly ruled it was illegal for spouses to check each other’s cellphones without permission and as a result, evidence obtained through such means should not stand in court.
Justice Chitapi made the ruling before sentencing 36-year-old Fortunate Nsoro for stabbing her husband to death while their eight-year-old daughter watched, reported The Herald.
According to the publication, Nsoro stabbed her husband in February last year after he refused to show her a text message she deemed “suspicious” on his phone
Justice Chitapi was quoted as saying: “There is no law which provides that a husband or wife has a right to infringe on the privacy of the other’s communications. Whatever message which the deceased received was not intended for Nsoro, otherwise Mutasa would have conveyed the message to her. She simply could not respect her husband’s right to privacy.
“Nsoro’s insistence that Mutasa should divulge a communication made to him on his phone was in itself an infringement upon his right to privacy of communication.
“In a way, by insisting that Mutasa divulges the message, Nsoro was the cause or torched the altercation which ended up with disastrous consequences. It is the court’s view that society should learn to respect privacy of communications. Many a time, the cellphone has been [the] cause of matrimonial quarrels and domestic disputes because couples do not respect each other’s rights to communications made or received.”
Nsoro was reportedly convicted of culpable homicide and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
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