Lawyer Mabirizi’s second attempt to be released from prison fails

Embattled lawyer, Hassan Male Mabirizi, has for the second time been denied chance to get temporarily freed from Kitalya prison.

Mabirizi is currently serving an 18-month sentence in prison over contempt of Court.

Appearing before Justice Boniface Wamala on Monday, Mabirizi requested for an  interim injunction to prevent his detention.

However, Justice Wamala denied the application, saying it had been overtaken by circumstances and that it was an abuse of the judicial process because comparable matters had previously been determined by the Court of Appeal.

“The applicant had sought to be released in the Court of Appeal with similar arguments, which were dismissed by a single justice of the appellant court, and being dissatisfied, he sought to have the matter referred to a panel of three justices, which is now pending allocation,” said Justice Wamala as quoted by Daily Monitor newspaper.

” I can’t intervene in a case that hasn’t been assigned or decided by the superior court. I don’t have any other choice than to dismiss the application with costs.”

Meanwhile, Mabirizi claimed that he was denied the right to a fair hearing by Justice Musa Ssekaana, resulting in the judge’s incorrect decision to sentence him to 18 months in jail.

He also informed the court that the state’s preliminary objection was only intended to harass him politically.

“It is intended to politically harass me and keep me in prison because every time I appear in court, something is raised and I am returned to prison.”

Mabirizi’s hopes of being released during the hearing of his appeal against the jail term were first dashed last month when Court of Appeal Justice Christopher Madrama decided that the court lacked the jurisdiction to rescind its powers to overturn the High Court’s directives.

However, he issued an order temporarily prohibiting the lawyer from paying a Shs300 million fine imposed on him for assaulting judicial personnel, pending the ultimate disposition of his appeal disputing the punishment, which was the sole appeal on the court’s record.

On the other hand, Mabirizi has since petitioned the Judicial Service Commission to have Justice Madrama removed from office because he is supposedly inept and prejudiced.