Zimbabwe Activists Fined, Get Community Service A Zimbabwe court on Wednesday fined six civic activists $500 each and ordered them to do community service for conspiring to commit public violence during a meeting in which they watched video footage of mass uprisings in Egypt that toppled its longtime ruler. Harare magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini on Wednesday ordered Munyaradzi Gwisai and five others to carry out 420 hours of community service or face a year in jail. He suspended another 12 months imprisonment on condition they don't commit another similar offense. Jarabini found the activists guilty on Monday, saying that while watching a video was not a crime, the "manner and motive" of the February 2011 meeting showed bad intent. He ruled that showing footage of uprisings in both Tunisia and Egypt that included "nasty scenarios" was intended to arouse hostility toward Zimbabwe's government. The activists had faced a maximum prison sentence of up to ten years. Police had arrested 45 people who attended the meeting at a Harare hotel but 39 were later released after judicial officials said police mounted a "dragnet" campaign against alleged participants. Gwisai, the outspoken radical leader of an international socialist organization in Zimbabwe, is a former opposition lawmaker. That court described as "bold and unsubstantiated" police claims that the group planned to emulate the Egyptian revolt. Gwisai and other members of the group complained earlier they were tortured by police and beaten with wooden planks and iron bars. Critics accuse him of violently suppressing his opponents.