Dr. Stella Nyanzi on Thursday morning collapsed at the International War Crimes Division of the High Court in Kampala minutes after the judge ordered her release from Luzira Prison.
She collapsed while being guided to sign her release papers and was shortly carried by prison warders to a prison car that drove off.
The High Court invalidated a case in which Nyanzi had been convicted and sentenced for cyber-harassing President Yoweri Museveni.
The conviction and the 18-month sentence was handed to Dr. Stella Nyanzi by the Buganda Road Magistrate’s Court for cyber harassment.
She appealed against the conviction and sentence saying it was unfair and that the trial court erred in the law.
Judge Gladys Kamasanyu overturned it after the court found no jurisdiction to convict her.
Nyanzi refused bail during her trial and had therefore already served nine months in jail when she was convicted.
Justice Henry Peter Adonyo made the ruling on Thursday morning and ordered for the immediate release of the former Makerere University Research academic unless she has other pending charges.
Justice Adonyo also noted that the lower court violated Dr. Nyanzi’s constitutional right to a fair hearing.
The judge also said that in criminal offenses, it is the duty of the court to ensure that defense witnesses appear by providing the defendant the favorable avenues like issuing arrest warrants for defense witnesses who are not compliant which the magistrate never did.
Nyanzi was seen blowing kisses and showing the middle finger while the verdict was readout.
The charges stemmed from a poem Dr. Nyanzi published on her Facebook page on September 16, 2016, a day after President Museveni’s 74th birthday
The poem reportedly ridiculed Esteeri Kokundeka, the late mother of president Museveni.
