‘Mbeki plot’ man sues the state over his arrest

The man arrested in 2003 over an alleged plot to assassinate President Thabo Mbeki is suing the state for more than R10m in damages, according to a report in The Sunday Independent. Uranin (Hassan) Solomon (43), also known as Bheki Jacobs, was flown by executive jet to Pretoria where he was held for five days before the charges were dropped. He now says he still does not know what the real charges against him were, as efforts to obtain a draft charge sheet have been unsuccessful. The Cape High Court summons was served on Charles Nqakula, the Safety and Security Minister, and Brigitte Mabandla, the Minister of Justice. Solomon, a Soviet-trained former ANC intelligence operative who runs a private security consultancy, is claiming R250 000 for legal expenses, R4m for loss of earnings and R6m for ‘hurt and insult’ to his person and the effect on his ‘dignity and reputation’, Solomon\'s lawyer, Charles Abrahams, told the paper. ‘The proceedings instituted against the plaintiff were malicious in that they were instituted and set in motion without reasonable or probable cause and with malice,’ the court papers state. Full report in The Sunday Independent