KAMPALA– High court civil Division judge, justice Boniface Wamala has delivered a ruling in a case where journalists Timothy Murungi and Henry Ssekanjako (both from New vision) together with Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) dragged to court the government of Uganda (Attorney General) , Chief of Defense Forces and eight security personnel , accusing them of violating their rights.
This application is a result of incident that happened in Kololo, Kampala district at United Nations Human Rights Office where Hon Robert Kyagulanyi , the President of National Unity Platform had went to file a petition about his missing supporters.
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On that day , Police closed the road heading to UN human Rights offices this blocking journalists who had went to covered Hon Kyagulanyi, as police stopped them, they decided to take photos of the incident. Later on a military police car arrived with security personnel who assaulted journalists on orders of their commander.
In his ruling delivered on Wednesday, Justice Wamala noted that the applicants presented to court enough evidence to prove that they were assaulted and tortured by security personnel in the process of carrying out their duties.
“From the above evidence, it has been established that security officers that included the 4th to 10th respondents, under the command of the 3rd respondent, intentionally inflicted physical pain upon the 2nd and 3rd Applicants. It is ascertainable from the present facts that the purpose of infliction of such pain was to intimidate or coerce the said applicants or any other persons to refrain from doing coverage of the occasion taking place at the UN Human Rights Office.”
The judge therefore ruled that having found that the applicants were subjected to acts amounting to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and that their
Right to freedom of the press and the media was violated, they are entitled to compensation by way of damages for such wrongful conduct on the part of the respondents.
“In view of the evidence and circumstances before me, I find the sum of UGX 75,000,000/= (Uganda Shillings Seventy-Five Million only) appropriate as general damages to each of the two applicants and I award the same to the 2nd (Timothy Murungi) and 3rd (Henry Ssekanjako) the applicants respectively.”
Court went further and dismissed the case against Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) with no costs.
