newjerseynewsroom.com

A Union County Grand Jury indicted an Elizabeth man last month on charges that he attempted to hire someone to kill another man, announced Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow.

Abram Soliman, 21, is charged with one count 1st degree of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of 2nd degree conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.

In July 2009, a 19-year-old Elizabeth man approached both the Elizabeth Police Department and the Union County Prosecutor's Office claiming that Soliman had approached him and tried to recruit him to kill another man, said Romankow. An investigation was launched and during a meeting with Soliman, the 19-year-old and a third person, an undercover officer posing as a hit man, the defendant offered money in exchange for murder.

At first, Soliman asked the undercover officer "to paralyze this other man," said Assistant Prosecutor Doreen Yanik, who is handling the case. Soliman then changed the request to murder. "He wanted this other man to disappear," said Yanik.

Soliman offered a down payment of $20 with a promise of installment payments after the murder was carried out.

"He agreed to offer the undercover officer drugs, cash and loot," said Yanik.

It appears that Soliman and his intended victim had previously crossed paths in a drug deal that went bad, said Romankow.

Soliman was arrested shortly after the meeting with the undercover officer and is being held at the Hudson County Jail on $250,000 bail.

— NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM