Court halts arrest of Otunnu

The Constitutional Court has halted the arrest of the Uganda Peoples Congress president until today when it will decide whether or not his application for interim order can be heard by a single judge.

Mr Olara Otunnu, who is charged with sedition and promotion of sectarianism, filed a constitutional application for interim order to stay the execution of a warrant of arrest and the criminal proceedings against him.

However, when the application came up for hearing yesterday before Justice Amos Twinomujuni, the State Attorney Ellison Karuhanga opposed its hearing, saying court lacks quorum to hear it.

Mr Karuhanga submitted that Mr Otunnu’s application being a constitutional application, is supposed to be heard and determined by three justices but not one justice. He said according to the Constitution, Justice Twinomujuni’s court was not properly constituted to hear the application.

However, Mr Peter Walubiri and Mr Erias Lukwago, who represented Mr Otunnu, objected to Mr Karuhanga’s submissions.

“We don’t agree with Counsel’s submission because it is not the parties that constitutes the quorum. The parties file applications before court and court in its wisdom chooses a quorum to hear the application,” said Mr Walubiri.
Justice Twinomujuni will give the ruling today.