Ugandan activist and academic,Dr Stella Nyanzi who has been set free by the High Court Judge on Thursday has been taken back to Luzira amidst protests by her supporters.
Dr Nyanzi was sentenced by magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu to 18 months in prison last August after being convicted of cyber harassment in connection to harassing President Museveni and insulting his late mother.
Kamasanyu said that an 18-month jail term would be sufficient for Dr Nyanzi, but since she had already spent nine months on remand, she had to spend other nine months in Luzira women’s prison.
However, Dr Nyanzi’s lawyers appealed in the conviction at High Court.
During the Thursday court proceedings, the conviction and sentence were quashed by High Court judge Henry Peter Adonyo who based on lack of jurisdiction and fair hearing by the lower court.
Justice Adonyo said that Dr Nyanzi was free which made her supporters happy and started chanting her name. However, the women prison warders asked her to first enter the prison bus and go back to Luzira prison to finish some paperwork and she will be set free after.
Dr Nyanzi refused and her supporters also blocked the way for the prison warders and closed the gates, which prompted the involvement of Police that fired tear-gas to disperse her supporter.
Later Dr Nyanzi was seen unconscious held in hands of Uganda Prison Women officers taking her into the prison vehicle which drove off to Luzira.
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