Buganda Road Court has charged and remanded to Luzira prison five Directors and 3 senior Editors of the Red pepper publication.

This after the 8 have appeared before chief magistrate James Ereemye Mawanda and denied 7 counts including; publication of information prejudicial to security, libel, and offensive communication. 

The 5 directors include ;Richard Tusiime ; the Managing Director, Johnson Musinguzi the Finance Director,  Patrick Mugumya ; The Director Operations and  Arinatiwe Rugyendo;   a director who also doubles as a secretary and  chief marketing officer.

Others are ;  Richard Kintu; the Deputy News Editor , Ben Byarabaha a senior Editor  Francis Tumusiime;  the special project Editor and James Mujuni a journalist. 

The magistrate has declined to grant the accused bail application   on grounds that a prosecutor borrowed from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC); Abdul -Salam Waiswa who hand the case on behalf of the striking state prosecutors needs adequate time within which to scrutinize the documents presented by the sureties.

Prosecution states that on the 20^th November 2017 at the Red pepper offices in Namanve Mukono district, the accused unlawfully caused publication and distribution of a newspaper  head line regarding the military operations, strategies and troop location well knowing that such publication can disrupt public Order and security.

In the libel charge, the accused are said to have  caused  publication and distribution of newspaper story lines that injured the reputations of president YKM7,his brother Gen . Salim Saleh, security minister Lt.Gen Henery Tumukunde which publication allegedly subjected the 3 people to hatred, contempt and Ridicule.

The accused are further said to have  willifully and repeatedly  used  their computers for no legitimate purposes to disturb the peace and privacy  of his excellency YKM7 , Gen Saleh and Lt Gen Tumukunde by portraying them as people  who  contrived a plot to over throw  the president of the Republic  of Rwanda. 

The accused will now return to court on the 5th/December 2017 for determination of their bail application.