By Ruth Anderah
The Court of Appeal has set Friday this week to determine embattled lawyer Male Mabirizi’s appeal against his 18-month sentence.
Mabirizi was yesterday arrested and taken to Kitalya prison to begin serving his sentence for insulting a judicial officer.
He was arrested by officers at Jinja Road police at Banda as he proceeded to enter Kyambogo University.
Mabirizi had been in hiding since last week when High Court Judge Musa Ssekaana issued an arrest warrant against him and also had the court Registrar Agnes Alum sign his committal warrant to Kitalya prison for 18 months.
Today, his colleague Isaac Ssemakadde has taken to the bar and asked presiding Court of Appeal Judge Christopher Madrama to freeze Mabirizi’s sentence and immediately order his release from prison in order to prosecute his appeal.
Before he was issued with an arrest warrant and his subsequent committal to prison, Mabirizi had on February 11th applied to the Court of Appeal to have the orders by Justice Ssekaana halted and be allowed to have a fair hearing on how he was allegedly unfairly convicted of contempt of court.
Ssemakadde says that if the court still finds him guilty, Mabirizi can still be sent back to prison to serve the remaining 535 days as the sentence is non-perishable.
However, the Attorney General said Mabirizi is already a convicted man whose fate was sealed with yesterday’s arrest and committal to Kitalya prison and therefore there is nothing the Court can do to reverse his circumstance as whatever he is seeking to stay has been already overtaken by events.
