Skip to main content

Jailed Activist Bares Breasts Over Conviction

Stella Nyanzi Bwiza.com

 

Ugandan academic who once called President Yoweri Museveni a "pair of buttocks" has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Activists condemned the jailing of Stella Nyanzi for cyber harassment, saying it undermined Uganda's commitment to freedom of expression.

She attended Friday's sentencing via video link, against her will, and exposed her breasts in protest.

She was acquitted on a second charge, of "offensive communication".

But when this was announced on Thursday, she gave a passionate speech in which she said she was disappointed with that verdict, prompting cheers from her supporters.

"I intended to annoy Yoweri Museveni. We are tired of his dictatorship", she was quoted as saying.

Uganda has a poor record on freedom of expression according to Reporters Without Borders, which says President Museveni "tolerates no criticism".

Earlier this year, Ugandan authorities detained BBC journalists who were investigating the illegal sale of government drugs.     Nyanzi, 44, is an accomplished researcher who previously lectured at Makerere University, one of East Africa's most prestigious institutions.

She is known for her frequent anti-government posts on Facebook, some of which take the form of poems, and which are often laced with profanity.

"My presence in your court as a suspect and prisoner highlights multiple facets of dictatorship. I exposed the entrenchment of autocracy," she wrote in her most recent post, about the court case. "I refuse to be a mere spectator in the struggle to oust the worst dictator."

Her cyber harassment convictions relates to a Facebook of last year in which she said she wished Mr Museveni, 74, had been burned up by the "acidic pus" in his late mother's birth canal.

Rights groups Amnesty International has called on the Ugandan authorities to overturn the verdict and free Nyanzi, who has been detained in jail since November 2018.

"This verdict is outrageous and flies in the face of Uganda's obligations to uphold the right to freedom of expression... and demonstrates the depths of the government's intolerance of criticism," said Amnesty's East Africa Director Joan Nyanyuki.

Nyanzi has previously been arrested for another Facebook post, in which she referred to the president as a "pair of buttocks". She is still on trial in that case, BBC reports.

ACTIVISM Human Rights Politics Uganda News AddThis :  Original Author :  SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements : 

from All Content
via

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nigerian Academy Of Science Inducts First Female President

The Nigerian Academy of Science has inducted a professor of Parasitology/Epidemiology, Ekanem Ikpi Braide, as its 19th President on Thursday. In a statement issued by Oladoyin Odubanjo, the Executive Secretary of the Academy, Braide is the Academy’s first female President in 44 years of existence. It read, “Braide was a member of the national committee that achieved the laudable feat of guinea worm eradication in Nigeria. “She has a rich professional experience as a researcher and an administrator. In July 2010, Professor Braide was honoured by the President of Nigeria with the award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) for her contribution to disease control in Nigeria. “She was nominated by the Honourable Minister of Health to serve in the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Health Sector Response (MEACoC-HSR). “Professor Braide served as Vice-Chancellor, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) Calabar, Nigeria (2004 to 2009) and as P...
Post a Comment
Read more

Former Maritime Agency Boss, Buba Galadima, Accuses AMCON Of Witch-hunt After Property Takeover

  A former Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Agency, Buba Galadima, has accused the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria of witch-hunt after the agency took possession of his business and assets on Tuesday in Abuja. Galadima, an ardent critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed that he did not borrow money or have unpaid debt with Unity Bank, which lodged a complaint against him and occasioned AMCON’s move on Tuesday. The properties taken over include House No. 15, Addis Ababa Crescent, Wuse Zone 4, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and House No. 4, Bangui Street, Wuse 2, also in Abuja.  Reacting to the situation, Galadima said, “This is an attempt to disgrace and break me down. This is injustice and an attempt to humiliate me. "But I am unbreakable and they can never silence me. They sacked me and over 50 people that sleep in the apartment. "We don’t know where to go. We will remain on the streets. We will remain on the streets until God provi...
Post a Comment
Read more

NLNG Signs Letter Of Intent On Delayed Gas Expansion Project

The Nigerian Natural Liquefied Gas LTD has signed a letter of intent for the engineering, procurement and construction of its long held up Train Seven project. In a statement released by the company on Wednesday, it said that the $10bn project will be executed by a consortium of Italian firm Saipem, Japan’s Chiyoda and South Korea’s Daewoo. The statement reads, “The project will form part of the investment of over $10bn including the upstream scope of the LNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment profile of Nigeria.” Managing Director of NLNG, Tony Atta, said in 2018 that the Final Investment Decision would be made in the fourth quarter of that year. This did not however, materialize. According to the release, the project will have a four to five-year execution time after the signing of the FID. The project is expected to add an extra 8 million tons per annum of gas to the 22 mtpa currently exported by the company. Oil News AddThis :...
Post a Comment
Read more