New Zealand MP Jacinda Ardern has investigated claims that Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe is trying to visit her country and says that there appears to be no truth in the claims.

A Zimbabwean LGBT activist living in New Zealand reported last week that Mugabe was attempting to visit the antipodean nation for a speaking engagement, after seeing a letter from a security company to a hotel in Auckland.

In response to the rumors, a group of anonymous protestors urged those opposed to the visit of the anti-gay African leader to lobby Labor MP Ardern.

Ardern told Gay NZ that she could find no evidence that Mugabe was planning to visit New Zealand. But she said that if he did attempt to travel to the country she and ‘many other MPs’ would vigorously oppose it.

Mugabe is on New Zealand’s Immigration Department’s restricted list so parliament would have to approve any visit by him.