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Uganda: Journalist Mwenda Charged With Sedition
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New Vision (Kampala)
10 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Kampala
He was jointly charged with two journalists of the same publication, John Njoroge and Charles Bichachi.
They denied the charge before Buganda Road Court Magistrate Francis Matenga Dawa.
The prosecution alleges that Mwenda and his co-accused in The Independent of April 18 published a story saying that the UPDF maimed and killed civilians in northern Uganda.
The story quotes Lance Corporal Godfrey Masaba, a UPDF deserter, who claimed the atrocities took place in Pader in June 2003.
However, the army said Masaba was at Kabamba Military Training School in Mubende in June 2003 and never served in the north. The commanders he purportedly got orders from were not in charge of Pader at the time, it added.
State Attorney Kate Basuuta argued that his claims were intended to bring contempt against the Government.
The journalists' lawyer, Bob Kasango, protested against the charge, saying the relevant sections of the Penal Code were being challenged in the Constitutional Court. He asked the court to halt the trial indefinitely until the Constitutional Court has resolved the disputes. Matenga is to rule on May 23 on whether to suspend the trial or not.
Mwenda in 2000 filed a petition in the Constitutional Court challenging the laws on sedition of the Penal Code, arguing that they are unconstitutional.
The magistrate granted Mwenda and his co-accused bail of sh5m not cash.
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Their sureties, Mwenda's sister, NRM MP Margaret Muhanga, Forum for Democratic Change spokesperson Wafula Oguttu, former minister Henry Kaijuka and John Wanyama Wangah, a lecturer at Mukono University, were bonded at sh10m not cash.
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