Court orders trial of businessman Basajjabalaba for evading taxes
The Constitutional court has ordered for the trial of city businessman Hassan Basajjabala together with his brother Muzamir Basajjabalaba over charges related to evasion of taxes.
The two brothers were five years ago indicted for conspiracy to defeat tax laws , forgery of a judicial document and uttering of a forged document but the constitutional court issued an injunction halting the trial before the Anti Corruption Court after Basajjabalaba challenged the indictment.
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On Wednesday, a panel of five justices of the Constitutional Court ordered that the trial immediately resumes.
"There is nothing unconstitutional for the two people to face trial before the Anti-corruption court since the said charges fall under the ambit of the Anti-corruption Act,"said the panel of judges in a judgement read by Justice Kenneth Kakuru.
The court directed the registrar of the Constitutional court to quickly forward the case file back to the Anti-corruption court for the stalled trial to resume immediately.
Compensation
The court however ordered the High Court to assess the compensation for the two brothers after finding that their fundamental rights were violated by both the Director of Public Prosecution and the police when they were rearrested after being granted bail by Buganda road court.
The panel of judges including; Eldard Mwanguhya,Opio Aweri,Remmy Kasule,and Solome Bbosa noted that actions of the state agencies as un lawful and high-handed in nature and ordered for compensation of the two but to be assessed by the High Court.
Prosecution alleges that Hassan Basajjabalaba and together with his young brother Muzamiru Basajjabalaba between 2010 and 2011 conspired to prevent ,defeat the execution or enforcement of tax laws by avoiding to pay Shs20 billion in taxes as a liability on the Shs142 billion compensation awarded to his company HABA group following cancellation of contracts to manage several city markets.
he had received from government for loss of contracts for city markets.
