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Maverick lawyer Isaac Ssemakadde has refused to honour the Police summons.

Ssemakadde was today at 10:00 am required to appear at the Central Police Station (CPS) in Kampala for questioning over criminal libel and offences prejudicial to judicial proceedings but he was a no-show.

When contacted, Ssemakadde’s lawyer, Derrick Bazekuketta, said it appears that the Police and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) are uncoordinated.

“The case is now in court and our client has no business with the Police regarding that case. Police should prove its case in court,” Bazekuketta said.

The Police summons indicates that Ssemakadde is required for case conferencing and fact-finding meetings on a case of alleged criminal libel and offences prejudicial to judicial proceedings vide CID headquarters GEF 312/2023.

The offence of criminal libel is provided for under Section 179 of the Penal Code Act while offences prejudicial to judicial proceedings are provided for under Section 107 of the Penal Code Act.

New Vision Online has since established that the case against Ssemakadde is based on an alleged malicious post on his X, formerly Twitter, account against Justice Musa Ssekaana, the head of the Civil Division of the High Court after he slapped over shillings 300 million in legal costs to lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi over contempt of court.

Ssemakadde, however, argues that the charges under which he has been summoned have since been challenged before the Constitutional Court as illegal, null, and void.

Under section 27A (1), (2), (5) and (6) of the Police Act, Police are mandated to summon/invite or require the attendance of any person whom the police have reasons to believe has relevant/ valuable information, exhibit or documents to assist in any police investigations.