By Sania Babirye
In an effort to strength her defense, the troubled Jailed Makerere University Researcher Dr. Stellah Nyanzi has hired a computer law expert Derrick Bazekukeeta to testify in her favor against the cyber harassment and offensive communication charges slapped against her by the state.
As she returned today before Buganda road court for further hearing of her case, Nyanzi's lawyer Isaac Semakade revealed that Bazekukeeta is testify to prove loopholes in the evidence that state's first prosecution witness and also a lead investigator Bill Ndyamuhaki's testified in court in an effort to prove that the said charges are baseless .
During his cross-examination, Bakezukeeta has informed grade one magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu that Nyamuhaki's testimony missed out on critical issues such as the devices used by Nyanzi to post the alleged obscene messages , the location where the posts were made and a possibility of someone possibly hacking into Dr. Stellah Nyanzi's Facebook account.
Bakezukeeta has explained that hacking is possible since one of the posts was allegedly made when Dr.Nyanzi is in a prison cell where electronic gadgets are not allowed .
He has further stated that as a result state mere based on assumptions than the required proof in electronic communication cases .
The case has further been adjourned to the 13th of May and Dr.Nyanzi has further been sent back on remand at Luzira prison until then.
On the 20th of March, the cyber crime investigation officer attached to CID Bill Ndyamuhaki 32 told court that he investigated the alleged offenses after the director of CID ordered him to do so He began by telling court that on the 16th of September 2018 he investigated the alleged post on Dr.Stella Nyanzi's Facebook face page and found them offensive in nature, crude, obscene and indecent.
He said that the content was sexually offensive because it talked about sexual parts which is offensive to any reasonable person in society including the president of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, his family and friends .
He red to court the alleged post and cited statements like "Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, they say it was your birthday yesterday, I wish the smelly itchy cream colored candida Festering in Esteri's cunt, had suffocated you to death during birth, I wish the lice filled bush and dirty public hair of a grown Esteri's unwashed chuchu had strangled you at birth, i wish the acidic path Flooding Esteri's cast Virgina canal had burnt up your unborn fetus, Yoweri, they say it was your birthday Yesterday, how painfully having a day, I wish your mother Esteri's smelling virgina would not have given birth to you, i wish yoweri Kaguta Museveni was a still birth that came from a smelling stinking candy, i wish Esteri's virgina was burnt as badly as you have burnt up our morals and professionalism out of our public institutions in Uganda among others.
In the alleged post red in court, Dr.Nyanzi concludes her post by writing that "if you(Yoweri) want to beat me then find me at my home, ask the bodaboda man to direct you to Mama Stella's house I refuse to be gaged.
He told court that he established the post and found out that Esteri is the president's mother Esteri Kokudenka who was referred to in the post.
He said that he found out that Esteri is the president's mother because in the post Dr Nyanzi referred to Esteri as President Museveni's mother.
That he came to know that it was Dr.Stella's account because he used the telephone numbers used to activate the Facebook page and it was that of Dr.Stella Nyanzi.
He further told court that he established that the Facebook page was activated by Dr.Stella Nyanzi 's email address that starts with figure S in the middle, with five figures and i as the last letter and her email stellanyanzi@ yahoo.com.
He also told court that he probed more on her yahoo account and established that it was activated by a number that ended with 17 which corresponded with his earlier finding of the same number that activated the Facebook page Stella Nyanzi.
He said that he went ahead and looked at the accussed's MTN number which also ended with 17.
He added that he later got the number of the accused and processed a court order for sim card identification to establish if the number belonged to the accused, served the court order to MTN and there by obtained the sim card registration.
That as a result he established that the number was registered in the names of Stella Nyanzi by using also her passport.
He also told court that the SIM card registration details also contained Dr.Stella Nyanzi's picture,Mobile number 0771 824117 and the applicant being Dr.Stella Nyanzi, date of birth 16th June 1974, Ugandan with passport number B0890700 a resident of Kampala Central and her signature and a copy of the bio data passport page with names of Nyanzi Stella, profession Anthropologists, place of Birth Jinja and date of acquisition 31st August 2011 and date of expiry 31st August 2021 National ID number with first name Stella last Nyanzi which she got in the 21st of May 2018 among others.
He told court that he got through Dr Nyanzi's page by accessing her personal data through her yahoo email and printed it out.
He also told court that he follows Dr.Stella Nyanzi 's face book page since early 2017 because he was part of the investigation team that investigated an earlier related and similar matter in 2017.
He added that since he had been following Dr Stella for sometime, he was able to access the post and when this investigations came up he extracted the alleged statements from her page
Prosecutions also tendered in court the extracted documents (Facebook post) from alleged Dr.Stella Nyanzi's Facebook page by the witness who is also a follower her cyber subscription foam signed on by the suspect, her actual copy of the passport she used to get the alleged MTN number among others
BACKGROUND
At the beginning of March, grade one magistrate Gladys Kamaaanyu declined to dismiss the offensive communication and cyber harassment charges against troubled Makerere University jailed Researcher Dr. Stellah Nyanzi .
Magistrate Kamasanyu agreed with the state and accepted an amended charge sheet in which Dr.Nyanzi is accused of uploading and distributing an offensive and obscene message on her Facebook page and there by disturbing of the president and invading his privacy in September 2018.
Magistrate Kamasanyu then ordered state to present its witnesses since the charges were properly brought before court, read and explained to Dr.Nyanzi in a language that her lawyer Issac Ssemakade said she understood before later denying the charges.