Uganda deports telecom giant CEO over national security

By Godfrey Olukya</p> <p>KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) – The chief executive officer of MTN, a leading telecommunication company, in Uganda was deported late Thursday over national security concerns, police said.</p> <p>A letter signed by Internal Affairs Minister Jeje Odongo showed that Wim Vanhelleputte was no longer accepted in Uganda and to stay out of East African country indefinitely, according to police.</p> <p>“Vanhelleputte was deported because he was attempting to compromise national security,” police spokesman Fred Enanga told Anadolu Agency.</p> <p>The plane carrying the CEO to his home country Belgium departed from International Entebbe Airport at around midnight.</p> <p>Enanga, however, refused to disclose which Vanhelleputte and other MTN officers, deported earlier, were spying for.</p> <p>Thursday’s incident came after the arrest and deportation of three other senior MTN staff, including Elsa Mussolini, the former director-general for mobile money, and Annie Tabura, the chief of sales and distribution.</p> <p>''We are carrying out investigations into the case as it concerns national security,” he said.</p> <p>“It contains highly classified information. Security agencies will inform the public over the actions of deported officials following the probe.”