By Watchdog reporter
Buganda road court has halted Government’s move to ascertain the mental status of Makerere University Researcher fellow Dr. Stella Nyanzi, pending disposal of her petition challenging the Mental Treatment Act of 1938.
Nyanzi who appeared before Court today, On May 25 she asked court to halt the inquiry into her mental status until the Constitutional Court decides on her petition challenging the 1938 Mental Treatment Act.
She is facing charges of cybercrime and offensive communication for allegedly referring to President Yoweri Museveni as a “pair of buttocks” on her Facebook page.
Nyanzi contends that before she could plead to the two charges, the prosecutor at Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court ambushed her lawyers by making an application under the 1938 Mental Treatment Act to have her subjected to a mental test first.
In her petition, she had stated that the 1938 Mental Treatment Act contradicts provisions of the 1995 Uganda Constitution. She accused the State of scheming to have her undergo compulsory treatment without consent and an automatic detention in a mental hospital as an ‘idiot’ in accordance with the Mental Act.
The State wanted Nyanzi to be subjected to a mental examination on account that she has a history of hilarious acts.
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