Buganda Road chief magistrate, James Eremye Mawanda has Tuesday granted the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) the very a last adjournment in the matter in which Makerere University lecturer Dr. Stellah Nyanzi is accused of cyber harassment and offensive communication against President Yoweri Museveni.
The magistrate has given prosecution a one month ultimatum to decide on how it intends to proceed.
This followed the state prosecutor Nelly Asiku’s request to court to grant one month for prosecution to decide on how to proceed with the case.
Asiku cited the recent industrial action by prosecutors as reason for the delay.
However this was contested by Nyanzi’s lawyer, Isaac Semakadde who pointed out that the DPP has wasted both the client and court’s time for over six months without providing amy response.
Semakadde further told court that delaying the trial has greatly affected his client including a travel ban which court imposed on Stella Nyanz at the same time she is receiving restrictions half salary from the University as the result of the case before court.
Subsequently, the magistrate gave the state one month until February 20 and threatened that would be the last adjournment in this case.
Earlier on, counsel Ssemakadde had asked court to scrap the charges against Nyanzi on grounds which he described baseless.
Stellah Nyanzi, 42, a resident of Kyanja in Kisasi Kawempe division is facing two counts of cyber harassment and offensive communication of which she pleaded not guilty, and currently she’s out on bail.
Prosecution alleges that on January 28, 2017, Nyanzi used a computer to post on her Facebook page and made a suggestion, which was obscene or indecent under the law, against the President, Yoweri Museveni.
The state says this contravened with Sections 24 and 25 of the Computer Misuse Act, 2011.
