Police have confirmed that the two Europeans that were discovered dead in their hotels rooms at Sheraton Hotel and Pearl of Africa Hotel in Kampala weeks ago, died due to drugs.
Alex Nordlarndar Sebastien Andreas, a 41-year-old Swedish national died on February 5 in Room 1231 on the 12 floor of Sheraton Hotel while Terasvouri Tuomas Juha Petteri, 42, from Finland was discovered dead in Room 806 on the 8th floor of Pearl of Africa Hotel the following day.
Police has since been investigating what could have caused the deaths.
On Tuesday, IGP Gen, Kale Kayihura addressed a news conference at the Police headquarters in Naguru together with scientists from the Police forensic department and the Government Analytical Laboratory to report their findings.
In both cases, Kayihura said tests carried out on body samples discovered no visible exterior signs of struggle or foul play.
“We have made some progress in the cause of the deaths to establish whether it was intentional or accidental deaths. Based on postmortem and toxicology reports, deaths in the two cases were caused by hypoxia (oxygen deprivation) following mixed toxins,” the IGP told journalists.
He said that both the scientific tests and the exhibits collected from the two hotel rooms pointed to drugs as the cause of death.
Dr Moses Byaruhanga, Police Director Medical Services revealed that in the case of Andreas, postmortem carried out on February 7 on his stomach contents, blood, urine and liver indicated “features suggestive of low oxygen content”.
In the Pearl of Africa Hotel death, he said there were neither injuries nor anything abnormal about contents.
“We found out mixed drug intoxication,” he said.
According to the Director of the Government Analytical Laboratory (GAL), Dr Kepher Kuchana Kateu, tests ran on Andreas’ samples (bile, urine, blood, stomach contents) analyzed a number of sedatives and drugs including narcotics, morphin, cocaine, diazepine (which makes one drowsy and could lead to depression or comma) and poisons in stomach contents and liver.
Petteri’s samples also tested positive for drug, poison or alcohol content. “We found a concoction of drugs but in this one, there was a brown unknown substance discovered in mouth. In blood, stomach contents and urine, we found a concoction of narcotics and pesticides,” he said.
Gen Kayihura said that police has so far learnt that a lady said to have been a girlfriend to one of the deceased, together with a driver got the drugs from a woman identified as Kabagambe Fatima.
Kabagambe and some other suspects have already been arrested although the IGP declined to tell how many, saying it could compromise the investigations. He said that some of the suspects are still in the custody of Internal Security Organization (ISO).
When the news broke regarding the death of Petteri, it was alleged that he had been invited to Uganda by the ISO Director, Col Frank Kaka and that his Ugandan fixers had presented to the protocol officer at Entebbe Airport a letter reportedly authored by Col Kaka.
However, ASP Joshua Tusingwire, one of the Police Investigating Officers on the case told journalists that the letter is now confirmed to have been forged.
“The Protocol Officer was approached by conspirators asking to allow them use the VIP route, but when asked to present the necessary documents, they only availed a photo of a letter sent through WhatsApp, written by Director ISO,” Tusingwire revealed.
“We wrote to the Director ISO with attachment of the suspicious letter asking him to confirm. This evening, we received a letter confirming that the letter was forged,” he added.
