The FDC defiance campaign will carry on undeterred until the Constitutional court decides on its legality, Chimp Corps have learnt.
The Constitutional Court had on April 29th issued a 4 week ex-parte interim order halting the FDC activities under the defiance campaign, including weekly prayers, public meetings, processions and other party activities, until the main suit in which government seeks the campaign declared illegal is determined.
Early this week, the interim order expired forcing the Attorney General to request for an extension and the Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma had set today for hearing from both parties before the interim order was extended.
However, to the surprise FDC lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, the Attorney General wrote to the Constitutional court withdrawing the interim order against the defiance campaign.
“We do hereby apply to withdraw the above captioned application under rule 2 (2) of the Court of Appeal Rules with no order as to costs,” reads part of the letter by the Attorney General and signed by Denis Bireije the acting Director Civil Litigation in the Attorney General’s office
“He has written to the court withdrawing the order but didn’t give any reason,” Rwakafuuzi told journalists on Thursday afternoon.
According to Rwakafuzi, the government’s lawyer who was not present in court for hearing of the application was not ready and decided to withdraw the application.
“They have found it difficult to have the case heard yet the law demands that Besigye ought to have been represented in court personally.”
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday summoned FDC presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye and the FDC party leaders to appear for the hearing of the interim application.
In the main suit before the Constitutional Court, the Attorney General wants court to declare both Besigye and FDC’S defiance activities as unlawful.
In his affidavit, the Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura says unless court stops Besigye and FDC’s activities, the country will go back to political unrests and insecurity.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kizza Besigye in regards to the application to extend the ban on the defiance campaign had written to the Constitutional Court protesting against hearing of the application in his absence.
In a letter dated June,1,2016 that was served to the court registrar by city lawyer Ernest Kalibbala, Besigye said that he could not reply to the application made by the Attorney General as required by law, citing limited time in which he was notified on the application.
Besigye said he needed to be present in court himself so as to raise arguments against the application since he has no lawyers representing him.
“In the event that I am not produced by the Prisons authorities as happened in Nakawa court, I would like to be put on record and notified to the judges hearing the application that it should not proceed in my absence,” said the letter signed by Besigye and copied to the Chief Justice.
He added, “Doing so would be violating my rights under article 28(5) and 44 © of the Constitution.”