Two weeks after Police announced that it had resolved the deaths of the two foreign nationals who died in two Kampala hotels, the Internal Security Organization (ISO) has come out to dispute the cause of death cited by Police in the case of Terasvouri Tuomas Juha Petteri who died at Pearl of Africa Hotel.
On February 20, former IGP, Gen Kale Kayihura confirmed that the two Europeans that were discovered dead in their hotel rooms at Sheraton Hotel and Pearl of Africa Hotel died due to use of narcotic drugs.
Alex Nordlarndar Sebastien Andreas, a 41-year-old Swedish national died on February 5 in Room 1231 on the 12th 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.
Kayihura together with scientists from the Police forensics department and the Government Analytical Laboratory had told journalists that in both cases, tests carried out on body samples of the deceased discovered no visible exterior signs of struggle or foul play. The revelation had come in the wake of growing interest in the case from Finland and piling pressure on Police on the cause of the death.
“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. In the case of Petteri, scientists said samples also tested positive for poison and a concoction of narcotics and pesticides.
However, ISO has dismissed the findings in the investigation carried out by Police which they say are not consistent with their own leads so far, further putting the mystery surrounding the double homicide in sharp focus.
The ISO Director for Political Affairs, Lt Col Joseph Aliganyira revealed on Tuesday that the CCTV footage from Pearl of Africa Hotel was manipulated by some wrong elements with an intent to mislead the investigation.
“Some people treated us to some funny information from a certain video photography trying to divert us from the right information,” Lt Col Aliganyira said during a briefing to the press on part of the declassified intelligence that has so far been acquired.
“Most of what was presented was acted, including one of the journalists who was part of the act,” he added.
The images from the two versions of the CCTV footage (by ISO and the doctored one) which SoftPower News managed to look at show tampering whereby some figures were added and some of the details conveniently edited out. In the doctored version, an image of Petteri is placed supposedly walking out of the room yet in the raw footage which ISO claims to have obtained shows no person. Both images are captured at the same time of the night.
“Something went wrong and it is big. The public should wait for the right information once we have decided to fully declassify it,” he said.
He further said that audio recordings from the Finnish intelligence and some of the telephone conversations between Finnish journalists and one of the suspects (Charles Etukuri, a New Vision journalist) indicate facts that contradict the version he gave.
“Police had their report, we have our own report. They are giving the wrong CCTV footage which was digitally manipulated,” Lt Col Aliganyira said, adding that the doctored footage “has insertions, removal of images, creating someone to look like Petteri yet it wasn’t him”.
The doctored version is recorded by High Definition (HD) camera while the other is by CCTV cameras.
ISO’s skepticism on the cause of the death is consistent with the account by Petteri’s friends and family who have recently stated that the deceased was not known to use drugs.
Information so far available indicates that the mysterious death of Petteri steamed from a plot orchestrated with the help of one of the ISO operatives identified as Apollo Kyabagye to invite the deceased to Uganda supposedly to earn off a deal whose details are yet to be divulged.
Kyabagye and his other plotters had written a forged letter that bore a forged signature of the ISO Director, Col (Rtd) Frank Kaka which invited him to Uganda. Upon arrival at Entebbe Airport, Petteri’s fixers, two ladies named as Faridah Nagayi and Arinda Carol were arrested after it was discovered that the documents they had presented to the protocol officers in Entebbe were not authentic.
ISO does not contest the fact that one of their staffers (Kyabagye) was involved in the scheme, and confirmed on Tuesday that he together with Nagayo and Arinda have since been detained.
Meanwhile, ISO is also questioning the role of New Vision journalist, Charles Etukuri who was recently in their detention, in the murder of Petteri.
According to Lt Col Aliganyira, Etukuri has given contradictory statements regarding his presence at the scene of crime. At first, Etukuri who broke the story in the press said he had only stopped in the lobby of the Pearl of Africa Hotel during his investigation on the death. But ISO says that the CCTV footage shows him entering the room of the deceased together with some whites and hotel staff.
However, Etukuri says that he only went to the room to interview Suvi Linden, a former Finnish minister for communications who had accompanied Petteri to Uganda since he had learnt that she was leaving the country.
This latest development regarding the unresolved question on what caused Petteri’s death raises several questions on Police’s role and its capacity to solve such crimes.