Investigators will subject key suspect in Susan Magara murder to voice tests to ascertain whether he is the one who negotiated Susan’s ransom.
Following a protracted extradition process, Patrick Kasaija alias Patrick Agaba alias Pato was on Wednesday brought back from South Africa to face charges of kidnap and murder of Magara early last year.
The other nine suspects in the case have since been committed to the High Court. Susan, the daughter of businessman John Fitzgerald Magara, was kidnapped on February 7, last year on Kabaka Anjagala Road in Mengo as she drove to her home in Lungujja, Rubaga division.
Her body was discovered at Kitiko along Entebbe Expressway on February 27. She was a cashier at Hoima-based Bwendero Dairy Farm. The kidnappers demanded and received a $200,000 ransom from her family, but still did not spare her life.
Yesterday, in a statement sent to media houses, Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said Pato was arrested on March 7, 2018, by members of Interpol South Africa, Crime Intelligence and the National Investigation Unit at his residence in Midrand, South Africa.
“His conduct towards the end of the ordeal was suspicious. On February 13 last year, he applied for a Visa to South Africa with a flight plan for February 16. Instead, he left Entebbe Airport on February 17 for Harare, through Nairobi, where he stopped and falsely declared to the immigration officials how he was returning to Uganda from AccraGhana,” Enanga said
The prosecution alleges that Pato and others still at large, on February 7, last year, kidnapped Magara with intent to procure a ransom, but instead murdered her on February 27.
Later, Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court gave Police a one-month ultimatum to produce Pato in court to face murder charges. When the case came up for plea taking, state attorney Patricia Cingatho, in early April, asked the court for one month to enable the Police to complete Pato’s extradition process from South Africa.
This prompted the presiding Grade one Magistrate, Joan Ketty Acaa, to adjourn the matter to April 23. In the murder case, Pato was charged in absentia with Mahad Kasalita, the Imam of Usafi Mosque in Kisenyi, Yusuf Lubega, Hussein Wasswa, Muzamiru Ssali, Abubaker Kyewolwa, Hassan Kato Miiro, Ismail Bukenya, Musa Buvumbo and Hajara Nakandi, the only female suspect among the accused.
Written By New Vision Uganda