Sk Mbuga
Eight months since his arrest, Kampala socialite Sulaiman Kabangala Mbuga, aka SK Mbuga, remains in a Dubai maximum security prison until he pays $250,000 (Shs937m) and another unspecified amount of money he allegedly defrauded from a businessman there.
Mr Mbuga is supposed to pay the unspecified amount of money to the Dubai businessman before he can be taken to court for sentencing.
“Besides the Dubai businessman, he also has to pay an Oman national. In Dubai [United Arab Emirates], cases like this one are very serious; he cannot be taken to court minus making payment,” a source said in interview.
The source explained that because Mr Mbuga had not been formally charged in court and sentenced, his name was not on the list of 38 Ugandans who were held in Dubai jails as of September 18.
Setback
Last month, Mr Mbuga’s hopes of being produced before court suffered a setback after an Oman businessman, Mr Ali Ahmad Ahmad Bur Omar, opened a case with Dubai police, accusing him of issuing a bounced cheque worth $250,000.
There were unconfirmed reports that Mbuga was due to be freed from Al Awiir central jail.
State minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Oryem Okello said he was not aware of Mr Mbuga’s return to Uganda. “He has asked our embassy in Abu Dhabi for consular services to have him released from jail and we are doing exactly that but he is not yet back in the country,” he said by telephone yesterday.