Five years after virtually disappearing into thin air, former Ald. Daniel Solis made a rather public arrival at Chicago’s downtown federal courthouse Monday, ready to testify as the most highly anticipated witness in the corruption trial of his onetime colleague, Edward M. Burke.

       Solis, whose bombshell cooperation with the FBI altered the trajectory of Chicago’s politics, arrived at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse with his lawyer and walked right past a phalanx of news cameras staked out in the lobby media pit.

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       As word ricocheted around the courthouse that Solis had entered the building, a knot of federal agents gathering near the back of the courtroom prompted one of Burke’s attorneys to complain that it looked like a “SWAT team” and that jurors could get the impression that Solis was “in danger.”