Hassan Solomon was released on R3 000 bail by the Pretoria Regional Court on Friday after the State withdrew charges against him of conspiring to murder President Thabo Mbeki.
Forty-one-year-old Solomon, who also uses the aliases Bheki Jacobs and Uranin Vladimir Solomon, would still face charges of identity document and passport fraud. The case was postponed to February 26 for further investigation.
The Sunday Times reported that Solomon was suspected of compiling a dossier containing allegations of a plot to oust or kill Mbeki. The plot would reportedly have involved tampering with the presidential jet.
The dossier apparently alleges that top politicians and officials involved in a power struggle wanted to ensure their chosen candidate ran the country after Mbeki.
Solomon was arrested in Cape Town over the weekend and flown by private jet to Pretoria, where he first appeared in court on Monday.
He maintained on Friday that he did not author the dossier, and claimed he was being victimised.
”I think this is part of the fight between forces in the (African National Congress),” he told reporters outside the court.
”This is like The Pelican Brief, the movie. I am not the writer of that letter.”
The movie is about a law student whose life is endangered as she explores the assassinations of two Supreme Court justices.
Solomon’s lawyer Benjy Duchen expressed bewilderment at Solomon’s arrest, describing it as an act of political and authoritarian abuse.
”This is a victory for due process,” he said in reaction to the withdrawal of the conspiracy charge.”
His client reserved the right to institute legal action against the State, Duchen said.
Solomon’s sister Soraya told reporters: ”I am absolutely angry that the State used its might and power to crush one of its citizens — a soldier of the struggle”.
She felt as if she had returned to apartheid when her house was raided on Monday. It reminded her of raids in her childhood when her father was an underground ANC member.
”We didn’t fight for this kind of liberation. We fought for democracy,” Soraya Solomon said.
She believed her brother’s arrest was part of a ”bigger picture”. – Sapa