A paternal aunt of Susan Magara has told court that the accused person (Abubakar Kyewolwa) was among those who received the ransom.

Testifying in court on Wednesday (October 25, 2023), Flora Magara, who delivered the $200,000 (about shillings 700 million) to the kidnappers, identified Kyewolwa as among the gang that received the ransom.

Others accused in the murder trial are former imam of Usafi makeshift mosque in Mengo-Kisenyi Mahad Kisalita, Yusuf Lubega, Hussein Wasswa, Muzamiru Ssali, Hassan Kato Miiro, Amir Ismail Bukenya and Hajara Nakandi.

Flora told court presided over by Justice Alex Ajiji that she delivered the ransom after her brother, John Magara's efforts to deliver the same to the kidnappers to release his daughter had failed.

“A man called on my phone and he told me that my brother had failed to deliver the ransom to him and that I should deliver it so that Susan is released from captivity.  They directed me to go along Busabala Road and that is where I delivered a ransom of $200,000 dollars. After delivering it, I thought she was going to be released but unfortunately, she was killed,” Flora said.

Flora was the seventh witness in the murder trial which commenced on Monday (October 23, 2023).

Susan, 28, a daughter to businessman John Magara, was kidnapped on February 7, 2018, on Kabaka Anjagala Road in Mengo as she drove back home in Lungujja and her car was later found abandoned near her gate.

Her kidnappers then contacted the family and demanded $1m dollars (about shillings 3.65 billion) before they could release her.

Unfortunately, she was murdered in cold blood and three weeks later, her body was recovered from Kigo in Wakiso district on August 27, 2018, where it had been dumped.

Prosecution alleges that the accused and others still at large on February 7, 2018, kidnapped Susan with the intent to procure a ransom for her liberation from the danger of being murdered.

The indictment indicates that Susan was a victim of a ransom scheme hatched by  Yakub Byensi, a former combatant with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels who hails from Bunyoro region like Susan and that he was known to her family as well Lubega who used to work in Container Village in Kampala with Susan’s mother. Byensi is still at large.

Armed with insider information, the suspects, according to the prosecution, started trailing Susan until they kidnapped her in Lungujja on her way home.

They allegedly first took her to Nakandi’s home in Nateete, Kampala and later to Amir Bukenya’s home in Konge II Makindye from where her two fingers were cut off and sent them to her family to show their determination to murder her if ransom money was not paid.

The indictment indicates that the decision to kill Susan was because releasing her would expose the kidnappers.

During her requiem mass at Our Lady of Africa Catholic Church in Mbuya, the family revealed that her killers had chopped off her fingers and sent them together with a recording of the incident to the family.