KAMPALA, UGANDA: City lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi has been summoned by court in Kampala to appear and explain why he shouldn’t be sent to jail for violation of a court order over the shs 300m fine.
In a notice signed by Judge Musa Ssekaana, Mabirizi has been summoned by High Court Judge, Mr. Musa Ssekaana who last month issued an order requiring him to pay a fine of Shs300m for attacking judicial officers.
According to the notice, he is expected to appear before the court on Friday.
“Whereas Attorney General has made an application to this court for you to show cause why you should not be committed to prison for a violation of a contempt of court order, you are hereby required to appear before this court on the 11th day of February 2022 at 3 pm to show cause why you should not be committed to prison for contempt of court,” reads in part the notice authored by Ssekaana.
The order arises from an application filed by the Attorney General seeking to send Mabirizi to prison for contempt of court for the alleged continued use of his Twitter handle @MaleMabiriziHKK and Facebook page “the Uganda Peoples’ interests” to attack judicial officers.
On January 27th, 2022, Justice Ssekaana ordered Mabirizi to pay a fine of sh300 million for contempt of court following posts on his social media platforms attacking Civil Division Judge Phillip Odoki.
This was after Odoki had dismissed Mabirizi’s application that sought to restrain Capital Markets Authority- CMA from extending the MTN IPO window and listing their shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange on grounds that the company was not well incorporated in the country. The Attorney General then filed an application for contempt of Court and it was heard and granted by Ssekaana.
Ssekaana also issued a strong warning restraining Mabirizi to stop attacking judicial officers in future but Mabirizi allegedly continued using his twitter handle to attack Judicial officers, according to the Judiciary Spokesperson Jamson Karemani.
It’s against this background that Ssekaana has summoned Mabirizi to appear in his court and explain why he shouldn’t be sent to prison.
When contacted over this matter, Mabirizi indicated that the notice to have him committed to civil prison is illegal because he filed an appeal against Ssekaana’s decision and its pending hearing.
“It’s not founded on any Application by Attorney General as alleged but it’s instead a creation of the Judge to satisfy his vendetta against me. I have written to him to provide me with particulars of the Applicant and copied in Judicial Service Commission and the Principal Judge,” said Mabirizi.
The lawyer also says that he is going to file applications seeking to stay execution of Ssekaana’s decision until determination of his appeal.
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