KAMPALA – Supreme Court judge, Ruby Opio Aweri has died, Chief Justice Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo announced Wednesday.
Justice Opio Aweri who has also been the Chief Inspector of Courts died at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala on Wednesday morning, Justice Owiny-Dollo. He was aged 69.
“The Judiciary family is saddened with the passing of Justice Opio Aweri, as he has been described by many as a great towering legal mind who served the bench with boundless dedication, utmost humility and commitment for nearly four decades. No doubt that the nation will miss his noble service,” reads Justice Owiny-Dollo’s statement shared by the Judiciary on Wednesday.
Aweri’s career started in 1982, as a legal assistant in Soroti district. In 1983, Opio Aweri was appointed a Grade One magistrate. He gradually rose through the ranks and in 1998, was appointed a judge of the High Court. In 2014, he was promoted to the Uganda Court of Appeal. In September 2015, he was elevated to the Supreme Court of Uganda. In August 2017, the Judiciary named him as the new Chief Inspector of Courts on a three-year term.
As a career Judicial officer, Justice Opio Aweri was appointed judge of the High Court in 1998 and later elevated to a Justice of the Court of Appeal in 2015. At the time of his demise, he was the Chief Inspector of the Courts of judicature.