High Court calls for Nyanzi file as she appears in court today

KAMPALA- The Criminal Division of the High Court in Kampala has ordered the lower court sitting at Buganda Road, to handover the file of the remanded Makerere University suspended Research fellow, Dr Stella Nyanzi.

The purpose of forwarding Nyanzi’s file to the High Court is for revision of issues that her lawyer thinks were not handled well by presiding Chief Magistrate James Ereemye Mawanda about two weeks ago.

“The above has filed an application for revision. You are requested to send the certified charge sheet with typed court proceedings for purposes of revision but keep the original for easy management of the case,” the order of the High Court Deputy Registrar Emmanuel Baguma to Buganda Road Court reads in part.

Core to the application made to the High Court for revision of Dr Nyanzi’s file is that on April 10, Chief Magistrate Ereemye erroneously and injudiciously, sided with the State and refused to hear her bail application.

Through one of her lawyers, Mr  Isaac Semakadde Kimaze, Dr Nyanzi also faults the magistrate of having remanded her to Luzira prison awaiting the determination of her mental status instead of hearing her bail application.

“In effect, the learned chief magistrate has thrown into indefinite limbo a bundle of our client’s constitutionally guaranteed rights to liberty, presumption of innocence, presumption of sanity and a fair and speedy hearing before determination of her civil rights and/or criminal charges contrary to the very important duties cast on him as a judicial officer,” Dr Nyanzi stated in her application for revision

The High Court had not yet fixed a date to hear Dr Nyanzi’s application for revision.

But in a related development, Dr Nyanzi will today be produced before Buganda Road Court for mention of her case.

On April 10, Magistrate Ereemye remanded Dr Nyanzi to Luzira women's prison until today when he said he would hear her bail application and also receive a report of her mental status as requested by the state at her maiden appearance.

Last week, Dr Nyanzi fought off doctors who had gone to her prison cells to examine her mental status as required by the state.

The outspoken researcher is facing charges of cyber harassment and offensive communications arising from the Computer Misuse Act.

Core to these accusations is that she referred to the person of President Museveni in one of her Face book posts earlier this year as ‘a pair of buttocks’, a reference that the state says was offensive.

She denies the charges.