Court orders release of The Greedy Barbarian author

A court has ordered the release on bail of award-winning Ugandan author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija who has been charged with two counts of "offensive communication" after making unflattering remarks about the president and his son on Twitter.

As part of his bail conditions for his bail, Mr Rukirabashaija is not allowed to travel out abroad and has to surrender his passport for six months.

He has also been barred from speaking publicly about the case.

Rukirabashaija is best known for The Greedy Barbarian, a satirical novel which describes high-level corruption in a fictional country, and Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous, an account of the torture he was subjected to while in detention in 2020.

Last year, he won the Pen Pinter Prize for an international writer of courage.

The writer has been in detention since December, and his lawyers said he had been tortured - an allegation the authorities detained.

The prosecution alleged that he had "used his Twitter handle to disturb the peace" of President Yoweri Museveni and his son Lt-Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

Mr Rukirabashaija pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He had tweeted that Lt-Gen Muhoozi was "obese" and a "curmudgeon".

The author had also tweeted that "the Musevenis have imposed enormous suffering on this country".

President Museveni, 77, has been in power in Uganda since 1986, and there has long been speculation that he was grooming his son - a powerful figure in the military - to succeed him.