This is a follow up article. This may be old news and I just don't remember it.
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Ex-honorary consul sues Jamaica over drug charges
( Reuters )
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KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuter) - Former honorary Hungarian consul Peter Hargitay, who was acquitted last month on drug trafficking charges, has sued the Jamaican government for false imprisonment, a lawyer for Hargitay said Thursday.
A second lawsuit is being prepared against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, according to attorney Ian Wilkinson. Wilkinson said Hargitay had not yet decided whether to file the second lawsuit in a U.S. court or in Jamaica.
The Swiss-born Hargitay is suing the government and police superintendant Reginald Grant, who led the investigation that led to his arrest in August 1995. The civil lawsuit, filed in Jamaica's Supreme Court Tuesday, accuses both of false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
Hargitay is seeking unspecified compensation for financial and emotional damages. Wilkinson said the amount "is likely to run into millions of dollars."
Hargitay was arrested last August after a police raid on his vessel, the Pilar del Caribe, netted 16 kilos (35 lbs) of cocaine. He and three of his crew members were acquitted in a Kingston court on Feb. 19, after the presiding judge labeled the prosecution's key witness a "liar" and expressed contempt for the conduct of the Jamaica-based DEA agent involved in the arrest.
Hargitay has said shares of his publicly-traded company, Olympus Investment, plunged on news of his arrest while his Vienna-based consultancy firm lost millions and his German firm was forced into bankruptcy because of the publicity surrounding his trial.
Hargitay said he had been approached by the DEA, which asked to use his vessel as part of a drug-sting operations. He had held several meetings with DEA officials, including one just the day before the cocaine was found.
REUTER
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