Janusz Walus parole decision must consider Hani's widow: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Appeal says Justice Minister Michael Masutha must take a victim impact statement by Limpho Hani into consideration when deciding anew if her husband’s killer, Janusz Walus, should be released on parole.
The SCA upheld an appeal by Masutha against the North Gauteng High Court’s decision to release Walus on parole.
It gave Masutha 90 days to reconsider if Walus should be released on parole. The Polish immigrant shot SACP leader Chris Hani dead in the driveway of his Boksburg home on April 10, 1993.
The high court granted Walus parole on March 10, 2016.
The SCA said Masutha should take into account Hani’s victim statement dated October 30, 2013, and Walus’s response to it.
Hani had claimed Walus’s parole application was incomplete, the SCA said.
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The parole board had not been given portions of his trial record, portions of the application to reopen his trial, his application for amnesty to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and his application to review the TRC’s decision.
In addition, she said Walus never apologised or showed any genuine contrition for killing her husband.
Walus continued to withhold the truth about the murder and the identities of the other conspirators, which he once threatened to divulge to the media.
None of these allegations were considered when the parole decision was made. They were also not brought to Walus’s attention for him to respond.
Victim impact statement
Hani’s victim impact statement to the parole board was not placed before Masutha and was not considered. It was also not brought to Walus’s attention, the SCA said.
Masutha’s assertion that this statement would have counted against releasing Walus on parole was therefore “obviously misguided”.
Former Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis supplied the weapon Walus used to kill Hani. Both were sentenced to death for the murder in October 1993.
Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in November 2000.
Derby-Lewis was released on medical parole in May 2015. He died of lung cancer in November the following year
Walus applied for parole in 2013. Masutha turned down his application in April 2015.
Walus then launched a review application. On March 10 last year, Pretoria High Court Judge Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen set aside Masutha’s decision and ordered that he be released within 14 days.
She dismissed Masutha's application for leave to appeal against her ruling.