The policeman previously hand-picked by former president Nelson Mandela to head up an elite investigative team is set to be grilled in the witness stand on Monday and reveal more alleged apartheid-era cover-ups.

Major General Andre Lincoln is expected to be cross-examined in the Western Cape High Court.

An original copy of a judgment from Palermo, Italy, relating to Italian mafioso Vito Palazzolo, halted proceedings on Thursday as the document was not in court.

News24 understand the judgment was received by a legal team on Friday.

Last week Lincoln testified about a number of alleged crimes committed by apartheid-era police, including their involvement in an alleged plot to have Mandela killed at his 1994 inauguration.

He is set to be questioned on this.

The civil case, which commenced a week ago, is developing into of the most sensational in recent times, exposing apparent major crimes carried out during the early years of democracy.

In 1996 Mandela tasked Lincoln with heading up a presidential investigative task unit to probe Palazzolo, who was at one point Cape Town-based and his alleged links to government officials, police and businessman.

But Lincoln was instead arrested on an array of charges linked to Palazzolo.

He was later acquitted of the charges.

Lincoln is now claiming R15m in damages from the minister of safety and security (now the minister of police) for what he has termed malicious prosecution.

High profile people whom Lincoln has mentioned in his testimony so far include former president Thabo Mbeki, then safety and security minister Sydney Mufamadi and current State Security Intelligence Agency head Arthur Fraser.

Last week Lincoln testified that Fraser previously tried to get him to plead guilty to criminal charges he faced at the time.

Lincoln said that in return, Fraser had assured him he would not serve jail time.

Last week Lincoln had also testified that then-police officer Leonard Knipe and others had been involved in “sweeping” crime scenes, including that of the 1986 murder of anti-apartheid activists dubbed the Gugulethu Seven.

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