Muwema Vs Facebook case comes up for mention on Wednesday

Mr Fred Muwema now seeks an order setting aside Mr Justice Binchy’s refusal to order Facebook to reveal TVO’s identity. File photo

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Ugandan lawyer sues Facebook over Mbabazi case bribery claims

Former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi’s lawyer has sued global social media giant Facebook for alleged defamation following content posted by a one Tom Voltaire Okwalinga accusing him of stage managing a raid at his chambers in exchange for shs800m, a development that dealt a blow to the former presidential candidate’s election petition.

At the height of the presidential election petition in March, Mr Fred Muwema was on the receiving end of backlash from the public infuriated by a flurry of reports on social media that a raid on Mr Mohmed Mbabazi and his own chambers in the upscale suburb of Kololo, a day before the case kicked off, was an act procured by the controversial lawyer in return for bounty from the state.

A notice of motion seen by Daily Monitor indicates the matter comes up for mention on Wednesday (June 1), at 10:30am at the High court in Ireland sitting at Four Curts, Inns Quay in the city of Dublin.

In the general endorsement of the claim, Mr Muwema seeks, “a permanent order pursuant to section 33 of the Defamation Act 2009 prohibiting the publication of the Facebook page of Tom Voltaire Okwalinga hosted by Facebook and articles titled Betrayal in the city posted on March 17.”

TVO alleged that information minister Jim Muhwezi delivered the bounty of shs800m to Mr Muwema, a claim the minister denied outright. The truth about the break into the lawyers’ offices at a critical time of the petition is yet to be made public, with Mr Mbabazi and Muwema both pointing fingers at security agencies and awaiting police investigations to yield fruit.

Muwema now wants the court to order Facebook to reveal the identity of TVO and avail him particulars touching his location to allow him initiate proceedings. In the event that Facebook does not divulge the details, he seeks damages for defamation from the company, being the host to the said defamatory content.

This is the second time an attempt is made to Facebook to reveal the identity of TVO, the first coming from government which requested the firm to share his identity in vain. At one point former intelligence operative Charles Rwomushana was arrested on suspicion he was the author of the content on the said TVO page but was shortly released for want of evidence. When Mr Mbabazi’s security aide Christopher Aine disappeared at the heat of the campaign, TVO alleged he had been killed and buried in an unmarked grave. Mr Aine would later resurface at General Salim Saleh’s residence closing the speculation into his fate.

Muwema’s lawyer Andrew Walker from Lavelle Solicitors located in St James House, Adelaide road in Dublin wants Facebook Ireland Limited, which oversees the American firm’s Africa operations, to bring down the content his client claims has down sized his standing in public as a service provider.