High Court judge Musa Ssekaana has sentenced lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi to 18 months in prison for contempt of court.
Known to be at loggerheads with Mabirizi, Justice Ssekana also ordered the arrest of the perennial litigant.
The judge ruled in favour of state attorney Patricia Mutesi in an application in which she sought the conviction of Mabirizi for defying court orders.
Mutesi argued that while the High Court advised Mabirizi to stop attacking judicial officers on January 27, the lawyer had continued publishing contemptuous posts on his social media pages and accounts, particularly attacking Ssekaana, and the judiciary, generally.
The state attorney told court that Mabirizi had made damning allegations against the judge, saying he was biased and so incompetent and unqualified to even run a family court or to even serve as a Grade Two Magistrate.
The perennial litigant was also accused of saying that the judge did not deserve an award from Pheona Wall-led Uganda Law Society (ULS).
Mabirizi had also punched holes in a Shs300m fine order by Ssekaana. (Read Story Here).
Ssekaana agreed with Mutesi and sentenced Mabirizi to 18 months behind bars.
But the lawyer accused the judge of not giving him a right to be heard.
Mabirizi has since appealed the decision.
On Tuesday February 22, 2022 at 10am, Justice Christopher Izama Madrama of Court of Appeal will hear the youthful lawyer’s application to stay execution of all Ssekaana’s orders under miscellaneous application No. 843 of 2021.
Mabirizi says Ssekaana’s order for detention is illegal.
“The order is illegal because no man can be a judge in his own cause,” said Mabirizi.
