By Andrew Irumba
Popular Kampala socialite Suleiman Kabangala aka SK Mbuga’s troubles seem to have finally come to an end, after court in Sweden dropped fraud charges he has been facing.
Spy Uganda has learnt that SK Mbuga was freed by court on Tuesday after prosecution failed to adduce enough incriminating evidence against him on fraud charges.
Mbuga has been in jail since early last year, after he was arrested by Interpol for allegedly conning his wife Jalia Mbuga Chebet’s Swedish ex-lover Stein Heisso of 53 million Kronor (about Shs23Bn) in a gold scam.
Sources reveal that Mbuga’s judgment had been slated for September 27, but after perusing through the matter, the trial Judge decided to free him on grounds that evidence from prosecution was lacking.
Prior to being jailed in Sweden Mbuga had been arrested in February 2018 at an airport in Dubai and caged at Awir prison over allegations of fleecing a businessman there billions of shillings under the guise of selling him gold.
He was later extradited to Sweden, where his wife Jalia had earlier on been arrested and freed on bail after agreeing with authorities there give them Mbuga.
At the time his arrest SK Mbuga was allegedly trying to sneak out of the United Arab Emirates after receiving prior information that he was being hunted by Interpol.
It was said then that SK Mbuga had been living in Dubai under the impression that authorities there would not hand him over to the Swedish administration because there was no case against him in particular.
However, Mbuga’s attempted escape back to Uganda was cut short when he was arrested at the airport and caged, before being transferred to Sweden.
Now that he has since been freed, it is not yet clear whether Jalia’s boyfriend Stein will also be freed, because he was sentenced to seven years in prison for losing company money in Mbuga and his wife’s gold scam.
