Court orders arrest of lawyer Mabirizi to serve 18-month jail term
Lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi
What you need to know:
- The judge’s decision was prompted by the State Attorney, Ms Patricia Mutesi’s argument that despite a standing court order warning Mr Mabirizi to desist from attacking judicial officers, he has continued making contemptuous posts on his social media platforms against Justice Ssekaana and the Judiciary at large thus seeking to have him committed to the civil prison as punishment for his actions.
Court has ordered for the immediate arrest of lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi to serve his 18-month jail term for his alleged continuous attack on judicial officers.
High Court judge, Musa Ssekaana, issued the order after finding Mr Mabirizi guilty of contempt of court.
Mr Mabirizi is said to have snubbed court summons to appear and explain why he should not be jailed for violating a court order.
Last month the same judge issued an order requiring Mr Mabirizi to pay a fine of Shs300m for attacking judicial officers.
“Mr Mabirizi never presented himself to court after being summoned and neither did he file affidavits to deny the allegations against him. Court has been left with no option but to order for his arrest on sight and be taken to prison for 18 months,” Justice Ssekaana ruled.
“This court has been forced to make a brief ruling to avoid further attacks on judicial officers. My detailed ruling supporting my decision will be made in the due course,” he added.
The judge’s decision was prompted by the State Attorney, Ms Patricia Mutesi’s argument that despite a standing court order warning Mr Mabirizi to desist from attacking judicial officers, he has continued making contemptuous posts on his social media platforms against Justice Ssekaana and the Judiciary at large thus seeking to have him committed to the civil prison as punishment for his actions.
Court further heard that in his alleged vulgarized language in his posts, Mr Mabirizi accused Justice Ssekaana of being biased, incompetent and not able to head even a smallest court of a family, unqualified for any award from Uganda Law Society and not even for a Grade Two Magistrate.
Ms Mutesi further explained that Mr Mabirizi in his post described the fine of Shs300m as null and void which statement she said was an attack on Court and Judiciary as a whole.
Mabirizi’s lawyer, Noel Nuwe’s plea seeking to have his client accorded a chance to appear and explain if he made those posts in violation of earlier court orders fell on the judge’s deaf ears.
Mr Mabirizi and Justice Ssekaana have been in disagreement since December 2019 during hearing of a case in which Mr Mabirizi appeared before the judge (Ssekaana) seeking to nullify the appointment of Electoral Commission (EC) chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama on grounds that he did not first resign as Justice of the Court of Appeal before he took up the electoral body appointment.
During court proceedings of the case Justice Ssekaana told Mr Mabirizi to submit his “rubbish” prompting Mr Mabirizi to ask the judge to recuse himself from hearing the case on grounds that when he was still in private practice, he had represented the Electoral Commission in various parliamentary electoral petitions.
Mr Mabirizi then vowed never to appear again before Justice Ssekaana.
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