Harare , Zimbabwe ( CNN ) -- A judge fined six Zimbabwean human rights activists $ 500 each on Wednesday for watching footage of the Arab Spring protests and threatened to send them to prison for 10 months if they fail to pay up by Monday . The defendants were among dozens arrested in February 2011 during an academic meeting in which a video was shown about last year 's revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt . Prosecutors argued that they were plotting a similar uprising in the southern African nation , and the six were convicted of conspiring to commit public violence . The fine is more than than a year 's pay for the average worker in impoverished Zimbabwe , where unemployment runs at 85 % . The defendants were also ordered to perform 420 hours of community service and warned that they would face a two-year prison term if found guilty of a similar offense within five years . `` The court has chosen a compassion approach against these accused who had strayed from the correct path , '' Magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini told the defendants in a packed hearing . The activists , who could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison , remained motionless , gazing into the roof of the courtroom as the magistrate read the sentence for about 30 minutes . A few people who gathered outside the court demonstrating against the ruling were arrested . Prosecutors argued that the activists wanted to incite Zimbabweans to demand the resignation of 88-year-old President Robert Mugabe , who has ruled the southern African nation for 32 years . Critics have said the charges , which initially included treason , were politically motivated . `` Obviously , we are aggrieved by the sentence as well as the conviction , '' defense attorney Alec Muchadehama said . `` We are going to appeal against both the conviction and sentence . In our view , this is too harsh . '' The defendants were among 46 activists arrested while attending a lecture about the popular uprising that forced Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak to resign after almost 30 years in power . Most were released . But among those charged was Munyaradzi Gwisai , a university lecturer and former lawmaker from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai 's party , who called his conviction a `` shame '' for Zimbabwe 's courts . `` The dictatorship is shaking . It is not yet fallen , '' Gwisai said . `` This is a temporary reprieve . We are going back into the trenches . We are in the trenches . Their real aim was to put us in as an example ahead of their clear objective of stealing yet another election . '' Mugabe 's ZANU-PF party is in a troubled unity government with Tsvangirai 's Movement for Democratic Change , which has called the arrests `` an abuse of state machinery by ZANU-PF to suppress the people 's views . '' Mugabe has called for new elections , but Tsvangirai has threatened to boycott the poll if a referendum on a new constitution is not held . Tsvangirai called the convictions `` very , very unfortunate . One thing I would say is , it 's totally uncalled for . '' But asked whether an Arab Spring-type movement is needed in Zimbabwe , he said , `` Now we are on another path of negotiation and setting up a transitional government and having elections ; there 's no need for it . ''
The activists were jailed for watching a video about the Egypt and Egypt revolts . A judge ordered them to pay $ 500 by more than a year 's or go to prison for 10 months . The amount is 10 months pay for an average worker in Zimbabwe . Prosecutors accused them of plotting a revolt against longtime President Morgan Tsvangirai 's .