Uganda: Academic accused of insulting president gets bail

In a photograph taken on Monday April 13, 2017, Makerere University researcher Dr Stella Nyanzi, left, is led by police to Buganda Road Court in the capital Kampala, Uganda. A Ugandan court has released Nyanzi on bail after being jailed for more than a month for calling the president "a pair of buttocks", charged with offensive communication and cyber harassment because of her Facebook posts targeting the country's long-time president, Yoweri Museveni, and his wife Janet, who is education minister.(AP Photo) (The Associated Press)

In this photo taken on Monday April 10, 2017, Makerere University researcher Dr Stella Nyanzi, left, gestures in the dock at Buganda Road Court in the capital Kampala, Uganda. A Ugandan court has released Nyanzi on bail after being jailed for more than a month for calling the president "a pair of buttocks", charged with offensive communication and cyber harassment because of her Facebook posts targeting the country's long-time president, Yoweri Museveni, and his wife Janet, who is education minister. (AP Photo) (The Associated Press)

KAMPALA, Uganda – A Ugandan court has released on bail a Ugandan academic who has been jailed for calling the president "a pair of buttocks."

Stella Nyanzi, a research fellow at Uganda's Makerere University, has been in custody since April 7.

The charges against Nyanzi — offensive communication and cyber harassment — stem from her Facebook posts targeting the country's long-time president, Yoweri Museveni, and his wife Janet, who is education minister.

In her posts Nyanzi criticized the president and his wife for not providing sanitary napkins for schoolgirls.

Amnesty International and several Ugandan rights groups had called for her unconditional release from jail.

The case against Nyanzi is being widely followed in this East African country where few people dare to publicly criticize the first family.

Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986.