HARARE, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- A Zimbabwean court on Thursday set free Martha O'Donovan, an American citizen who was arrested in November last year and charged with insulting Robert Mugabe, the country's former president.

Harare Magistrate Nomsa Sabarauta removed O'Donovan from remand and ordered the State to proceed by way of summons if it intends to pursue with prosecuting the American citizen, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights whose lawyers represented O'Donovan said in a statement.

O'Donovan was arrested in November last year and charged with subverting constitutional government and insulting the president through posting an abusive, indecent and obscene message on micro blogging site Twitter.

The American citizen became the first person to be arrested and charged with abuse of social media since the Zimbabwean government established a Ministry of Cyber Security, Threat Detection and Mitigation in October.

Mugabe resigned last month following military and public pressure, ending his 37-year reign.