Court cancels police search order of Monitor

KAMPALA. Court has revoked the search warrant issued to the Police on Monday, noting the officers had overstepped the mandate given.

Nakawa Grade One Magistrate Rosemary Bareebe, in issuing yesterday evening’s vacation order, wrote that “in the process of execution of the said warrant, the mandate given by the warrant was overstepped.”

Monitor Publications’ Managing Director Alex Asiimwe, through lawyer James Nangwala, petitioned court, arguing that instead of carrying out the search as ordered by the court, Police had gone ahead to switch off two radio stations owned by Monitor Publications – and housed in the same building as the Monitor newspapers. They also switched off the Monitor printing press and locked out company employees.

 
The police had on Monday argued that the premises were a scene of crime. “Upon reading and considering the application for vacating the search warrant issued to D/ASP Mbonimpa Emmanuel on the 20th May 2013 and upon reading the affidavit of Mr Alex Asiimwe, the Managing Director of Monitor Publications dated 22 May 2013, It is hereby order that; the Search warrant issued to D/ASP Mbonimpa Emmanuel ...is hereby vacated in the exercise of the given to the court,” Ms Bareebe wrote.

The magistrate was “satisfied that in the process of execution of the said warrant the mandate given by the warrant was overstepped.” She ordered the police to immediately return the search warrant to the court.

 

Nation Media Group chief operations officer Tom Mshindi welcomed the court’s decision. He said it was clear that the police had gone beyond the mandate given under the search warrant when in the process of the search they decided to switch off the two radio stations, 93.3 Kfm and 90.4 Dembe Fm, and the printing press.
 
“We are very excited with this development and hope that the police will speedily leave our premises. As far as we are concerned, this effectively ends the ordeal we have suffered and we are eager to resume our operations,” he said.

 

Mr Nangwala said the warrant in effect halts all police activity on the premises and the search. “We were unable to serve the police but at least they are aware that there is a vacation order,” he said.

But the officer in charge of media crime at the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate, Mr Fred Mirondo, who looked at the court order said: “We shall discuss tomorrow.”

Mr Asiimwe said they were happy with the results after following the due process of the law.

“Let us wait and see what happens tomorrow,” he added.

Daily Monitor,  a subsidiary of the Nation Media Group, was raided by heavily armed police on Monday, waving a search warrant from court. They said they were searching for a document related to stories published by the Daily Monitor concerning a letter written by Coordinator of Intelligence Agencies, Gen David Sejusa. Gen Sejusa was warning of a plot to assassinate senior security officials, including himself, because of their alleged opposition to what he called the ‘Muhoozi Project’.

According to the letter the Muhoozi Project is a scheme by people close to the President to prepare the First Son, Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to succeed President Museveni in power.

Gen Sejusa addressed the letter to the Director General of Internal Security Organisation, Col Ronnie Balya.

Last week, police interrogated Daily Monitor journalists Risdel Kasasira and Richard Wanambwa,  authors of the story, as well as Managing Editor Don Wanyama.

The police are demanding that the Monitor reveal the source of the information and produce the letter.

So far the police have searched through all documents and computers in the different newsrooms at KFM, Dembe FM and the newspapers section. Nothing had been recovered so far.