Etukuri's abduction: What could have sparked it off

Feb 13, 2018

He was arrested on accusations that he had travelled into the country on a forged clearance letter by Bagyenda, but was later released.

New Vision senior reporter, attached to the weekend, Charles Etukuri has been abducted by armed men in military uniform. He was picked near New Vision offices on Tuesday afternoon, around 2:00pm.

Etukuri's abduction is suspected to be related to the stories he had written in the recent past, the last of which was a story about the death of a finish national, who died at The Pearl of Africa Hotel in Kampala.

The story said some ISO operatives had been implicated in the death of the Finish national.

 

Below is the story in full:

Finland Tycoon dies under mysterious circumstances in Kampala: Security agencies ISO and CMI cited in his arrest

The Uganda Police Force is investigating circumstances under which a Finnish tycoon is Teräsvuori Juha Petteri Teräsvuori died under mysterious circumstances at the Pearl of Africa Hotel in Kampala Uganda on Monday night.

Teräsvuori  had travelled to Uganda with the Finnish politician Suvi Linden who was a former Minister for Communications and a member of the National Coalition Party the biggest political party in Finland to meet the head of Internal Security Organization Col. Fred Bagyenda.

Even though security agencies are now claiming the deceased died after inhaling drugs, Linden in an exclusive interview with Saturday Vision has denied claims that the deceased was taking drugs.

Saturday Vision has learnt that Teräsvuori died a day after he was arrested in an operation led by the Internal Security Organization officers led by the Director of Operations Joel Agaba together with another officer identified as Malcolm in Entebbe on Monday February 5, 2008 shortly after he had landed.

He was arrested on accusations that he had travelled into the country on a forged clearance letter by Bagyenda and later set free and allowed to go to Pearl of Africa Hotel where he had been booked to stay only to be found dead the next day on Tuesday February 6th.

Saturday Vision has, however, learnt that a number of ISO operatives have been implicated in the forgeries that led to the arrest of the tycoon together with members of his entourage.

At the centre of it all is an ISO officer identified as Apollo Kyabagye attached to the ISO Economic Unit who Saturday Vision has learnt was approached by Carol Alinda currently in ISO custody over the deal to provide escort and security services to the tycoon.

A source privy to the underhand dealings told Saturday Vision that in 2016 the late Teräsvuori met a Ugandan, Faridah Naggayi in Dubai and the two became friends. "When he wanted to travel to Uganda, he contacted her about his business dealing and requested to meet the security minister. It's then that Faridah engaged Alinda who was her friend and she claimed she had friends in security," the source revealed.

Alinda then approached Kyabagye who asked her to officially ask Teräsvuori to write to Col. Bagyenda, asking for an appointment. Our security source told Saturday Vision that Kyabagye accepted to offer guard services for the tycoon and also escort services, including hiring the cars they would require during their stay in Kampala.

Saturday Vision has seen a letter written by Teräsvuori, who was the owner and Chairman of TTCG Finland Limited, a security company, addressed to the head of ISO Col. Fred Bagyenda, in which he indicated that he was ready to come to Uganda and exhibit his company's products.

In the letter dated January 31st 2018, Teräsvuori indicates in part, "we would appreciate to come and present the following services. Our company TTCG Finland Ltd is one of the main consultants to represent several European Companies in industries of defense, military training, cyber security, including monitoring systems, media control and cover, tracking systems controlled by government, dark web solutions, surveillance software, mining and construction industry. I will travel to Uganda personally with our  ex-communication minister Suvi Linden," the letter reads in part.

On February 2nd, 2018 a letter purportedly written by Col. Bagyenda in response to the one written by Teräsvuori, welcoming him to Uganda reads in part, "in reference to your request to come to Uganda, for presentation  with your former Communication Minister Suvi Linden. We hereby confirm and invite Teräsvuor passport No. 2234761 officially."

On February 5, 2018 Teräsvuori was arrested after officials at the airport became suspicious and called the office of the ISO Director General to confirm whether he had cleared the Teräsvuori and his delegation to come to and visit officially.

Sources told Saturday Vision that when the telephone contact was made, the head of operations was sent to Entebbe to pick the suspects and they were driven to Nakasero and after a series of interrogations, the team detained Alinda who was accused of forging the letters, but her ISO colleagues were set free.

Alinda was driven to Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence Offices in Mbuya while the others were  left to go free, but were ordered to report to ISO headquarters the next day.

Saturday Vision has learnt that Teräsvuori was escorted to the hotel and booked on the 8th floor, room 208 by the ISO operatives together with his fiancé Faridah. Events of what exactly transpired in the room remained scanty.

However, CCTV footage from the hotel show Faridah leaving the hotel at around 11.07pm carrying a bag and she returns at 1:24am carrying a polythene bag, which she claimed contained alcohol. However, the Police sources say they were unable to trace any alcohol content in the room further raising doubt on where the alcohol Faridah claimed she was carrying went.

An official at the hotel told Saturday Vision that they were only called the next morning at around 10:30am. and informed that Teräsvuori had died. The Police also confirmed they were called at around 11:00am and informed of the death and when they went to the room, they recovered the deceased's body on the bed.

Linden speaks out
In an interview with Saturday Vision, Linden said they had come to Uganda to open up doors for new business ventures. "This was our first trip here and we were supposed to find out whether there were  business opportunities and my background was in the telecommunications field  and Teräsvuori background was cyber security and was representing a couple of Finnish companies in the security field."

Our contact person were Musa and Faridah. Linden says that Teräsvuori made all arrangement with Alinda and the ISO operatives to have their visit cleared.

She denied claims that Teräsvuori was sick. "He had Asthma and he had medication. I even spoke to his wife. The deceased doesn't use any drugs," Linden says. 

The deceased body is currently still in Mulago while Linden travelled back on Thursday. The body will be transported to Finland on Tuesday next week.

 

A follow up story was done the next day by Charles Etukuri

Investor death: Finland ex Minister, ISO staff arrested

Six people have been arrested in the ongoing investigations over the death of Finish tycoon Teräsvuori Teräsvuor Juha Pateeri who died on Monday at the pearl of Africa hotel.

On Thursday operatives from the Internal Security Organization arrested ex Finland Communications Minister Suvi Linden who had travelled with the deceased, Teräsvuori's girlfriend Farida Nagayi and his brother Musa Didi as they travelled to the airport. Two ISO staff who were involved in organizing the visit of deceased have also been arrested on the directive of the ISO boss Col. Rtd Fred Bagyenda.

Among those arrested was Apollo Kyabagye who is attached to the ISO Economic Monitoring Unit  and was the one who was approached by Carol Alinda who is also currently in ISO Custody over the deal to provide escort and security services to the tycoon and his entourage.

The arrests come in the wake of an investigation being conducted by police to determine the manner in which the Tycoon met his death. The postmortem result released on Friday evening revealed that the cause of death could not be determined by looking at the body physically and further body samples have been taken to the Government analytical laboratory for further tests.

On Friday the deceased family insisted he was not taking drugs contrary to claims by security agencies that they had found injection marks on his body.  The deceased family said the injections marks were for vaccination he was subjected to before he came to Uganda.

By press time police sources were not yet certain whether to open up murder investigations on the death of Teräsvuori since they had not yet had full access to key people who have been detained by ISO.

However, they were still the crime scene and interrogating a number of vital leads including finding out who else accessed the deceased room since drugs which included a white substance and Kuber were found inside his hotel room.

Fresh information availed to Sunday Vision also indicates that the investor may have been arrested as a result of a deal gone sour. Sources privy to the investigations revealed that the manner in which the investigations were conducted prior to the death of Teräsvuori were also suspect because even though the ISO officers had been involved in the letter forgery racket, the officers instead chose to arrest only Alinda and allowed the officers who had participated in the forgeries escort the deceased together with his entourage to Pearl of Africa Hotel where he met his death.

Investigations also reveal that the ISO operatives had demanded to be paid $50,000 (shs 180million) while Alinda would be paid $5000 (shs 18 milllion) had the Investor successfully landed.

A senior police detective who spoke to Sunday Vision said they had not yet made a break through. He however said they were facing hardships dealing with the colleagues in ISO who were not being open.

"We are yet to record statement from a lady (Alinda) who is in their custody. We have been told they have effected arrests of their own but it's all clouded in mystery. We need them to be open to us and we investigate this matter to its end. Why should they hold on to suspects who are key in these investigations," the highly placed source revealed.

By press time, police was also considering interrogating the deceased girlfriend Farida Nagayi and her brother Musa Didi regarded as key people in the whole saga.  Nagayi sources say introduced the idea of the investor coming to Uganda to Alinda who approached the ISO officers.

A source privy to the underhand dealings told Saturday Vision that in 2016 the late Teräsvuori met Nagayi in Dubai and the two became friends. "When he wanted to travel to Uganda he contacted her about his business dealings and requested to meet the security Minister. It's then that Farida engaged Alinda who was her friend and she claimed she had friends in security," the source revealed.

Alinda then approached Kyabagye who asked her to officially ask Tomas to write to Col. Bagyenda asking for an appointment. Our security source told Saturday Vision that Kyabagye accepted to offer guard services for the tycoon and also escort services including hiring the cars they would require during their stay in Kampala.

Saturday Vision has seen a letter written by Tomas who was the owner and Chairman of TTCG Finland Limited a security company addressed to the head of ISO Bagyenda in which he indicated that he was ready to come to Uganda and exhibit his company's products.

On February 2nd, 2018 a letter purportedly written by Col Bagyenda in response to the one written by Toumas welcomes him to Uganda reads in part, "in reference to your request to come to Uganda, for presentation with your former Communication Minister Suvi Linden. We hereby confirm and invite Teräsvuori Teräsvuor passport No. 2234761 officially."

On the fateful day Toumas met his death, he had been booked into the same room with Nagayi but CCTV footage from the hotel show her moving out at around 11;07 pm and she returned at 1:10 am. phone print outs also indicate she was in constant communication with two individuals who were in Bakuli  and she went out to meet them.

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