Court summons Sematimba over defamation case

KAMPALA- Businessman Peter Sematimba has been summoned by the High Court in Kampala to file his defence over allegations that he defamed another businessman Silva M Musubika of SMS empire.

The summons dated April 11, 2015, and signed by the Deputy Registrar of the court, Mr Festo Nsenga, require Mr Sematimba to file in his defence within 15 days from the date of receipt of the summons.

Court records indicate that between November 27 and 29 last year, Mr Sematimba through his local FM radio station, (Super FM), alongside one of the radio programme producers, broadcast false and malicious statements about Mr Musubika.

Core to the claims of defamation is that Mr Sematimba used his radio station to run a dangerous campaign against Mr Musubika, accusing him of going to various justice agencies including court, police, Directorate of Public Prosecutions, American Embassy, Inspectorate of Government and Uganda Revenue Authority just to implicate Mr Sematimba in criminality.

“In particular, the 1st defendant [Mr Sematimba] spoke that the plaintiff [Mr Musubika] was a liar, conspirator, thief, quack, fraudster, forger and involved in forgery of documents for use in court proceedings, corrupt and ungrateful thief that removed and forged court pleadings on the court record to implicate the 1st defendant [Mr Sematimba] in criminality with the stated intention of grabbing his property whereas not..” reads in part the court documents.

Mr Musubika claims Mr Sematimba’s utterance made him seem corrupt person and a property grabber who never had any good relationship with his late uncle, Paul Sebalu. Mr Musubika now wants court to order Mr Sematimba to pay him Shs400m as damages for having suffered as a result of what he calls his reckless defamatory utterances.

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