High Court judge Waswa Basaza has today admitted Article 19 as an Amicus curie to the social media shutdown case filed by the Unwanted Witness Uganda.

In his ruling, Justice Basaza said that under article 40 of the East African Community, the applicant (Article 19) required no legal registration to apply for Amicus curie onto the Internet shutdown case.

The judge’s ruling followed an objection to Article 19’s application from the defense team, which argued that Article 19 was not a Ugandan based organization, with no registration license to operate in Uganda.

Late last year, Unwanted Witness Uganda dragged the Attorney General, Uganda Communications Commission and 8 telecom service providers to court challenging the dual Internet shutdown and social media blockage in February and May last year.

Court set May 22, 2017 as hearing date for the main application, Unwanted Witness is represented by Rwakafuzi and Company Advocates.