Lawyer Mabirizi loses second bid for his release from prison
Lawyer Male Mabirizi in the dock at Buganda Road Court on March 7. PHOTO | ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Mabirizi stated that he was not accorded a right to a fair hearing by Justice Musa Ssekaana, thus leading the judge to end up with a wrong conclusion of sentencing him to 18 months imprisonment.
Lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi has lost a second bid to temporarily be released from Kitalya prison where he is serving 18 months for insulting judicial officers.
Mr Mabirizi on Monday appeared in person before Justice Boniface Wamala seeking an interim order to halt the decision to arrest him for contempt of court.
However, Justice Wamala dismissed the application, reasoning that it was overtaken by events and is an abuse of the court process since similar issues were already decided upon by the Court of Appeal.
“The applicant had sought to be released in the Court of Appeal with similar arguments and the same was dismissed by a single justice of the appellant court and being dissatisfied, he sought the matter to be referred to a panel of three justices, which is now pending allocation,” Justice Wamala ruled.
Adding. “There is no way I can interfere in a case pending allocation and determination by the superior court. I am left with no option but to dismiss the application with costs.”
During the hearing, State Attorney Hillary Nathan Abila asked the court to dismiss Mabirizi’s application.
However, Mabirizi stated that he was not accorded a right to a fair hearing by Justice Musa Ssekaana, thus leading the judge to end up with a wrong conclusion of sentencing him to 18 months imprisonment.
Mabirizi arguments
He further told the court that the preliminary objection raised by the state was just to harass him politically.
“It is intended to politically harass me and keep me in prison as each time I appear in court something is raised and I am taken back to prison,” Mr Mabirizi stated.
Last month, Court of Appeal Justice Christopher Madrama cut short Mabirizi’s hopes of being released pending the hearing of his appeal challenging the jail term after he ruled that the court lacked the jurisdiction to revoke its powers to reverse the orders of the High Court.
“There is no way this court can stay the execution of the applicant’s (Mabirizi) arrest when it was already done on February 21, 2022, thus the application is being overtaken by events with no formal appeal challenging the proceedings,” Justice Madrama ruled on Friday.
However, he issued an order temporarily stopping the lawyer from paying a fine of Shs300m that was handed to him for attacking judicial officers until the final disposal of his appeal challenging the same as it was the only appeal on the court record.
Meanwhile, Mabirizi has since petitioned the Judicial Service Commission seeking the removal of Justice Madrama from office for allegedly being incompetent and biased.
