Sigh. An "18 min read" that describes why and how some random guy wound up in jail. Don't people understand the "Five Ws"[1]

Don't make me invest 18 minutes of my time to get the big picture. How about a tl;dr or a CliffsNotes?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws

I think the cultural context is missing for you. The article is more an indictment on what it's really like, starting up in a country riddled with corruption and lawlessness at multiple levels. That can be hard to relate to or even arrive at, if you just read this writeup.