'I'm out of ugly belly of the state brutality'

PIC: Dr Stella Nyanzi consults her lawyer in court. (File)

KAMPALA - Hours after Makerere University researcher Dr Stella Nyanzi was granted bail, she expressed her joy to be out of Luzira Prison.

"What a delight to be out of the ugly belly of the state's brutality! Luzira Women's Prison will forever hold a dear place in my heart," Nyanzi who was granted bail posted on her social media Facebook page.

Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate Mawanda Ereemye granted Nyanzi a sh10m non-cash bail.

"I made friends with prisoners. Thirty-three days of wearing the sickening yellow uniform, sleeping on a thin mattress spread on the cement floor - alongside sixty other in-mates in my ward……"Nyanzi added.

"I am glad to be home with family and friends who love me. I am loved. I am grateful to be loved. All the days I was locked up in Uganda's beastly prison, I was upheld by love from near and far. I thank you all for the love. Freedom smells lovely when among loved ones," 42-year-old Nyanzi said.

"My lawyers and legal team kept my winning spirit up. My sureties restored my hope in humanity. All my visitors in prison inspired me not to give up. The public press media and the social media fraternities kept the fire burning. Human rights activists, feminists, queers, journalists, cartoonists, comedians, musicians, artists, scholars, researchers, foreign missions, and all my allies who stood tall and proud in solidarity with me, I thank you," she said.

Nyanzi was charged on April 10, 2017 under section 24, and 25 of the Computer Misuse Act, 2011.

It is alleged that on January 28, 2017 she used a computer to post on her Facebook page "Stella Nyanzi" and made a suggestion against President Yoweri Museveni which is obscene or indecent under the law.