Walus to appeal parole ruling

SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani’s killer, Janusz Walus, will remain behind bars after the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) refused his release on parole. However, his legal team said they would take the judgment on appeal. In refusing his application, Judge Elizabeth Kubushi said the argument that his further incarceration amounted to cruel and degrading punishment was unsustainable and misplaced. Walus’ counsel earlier told the judge that, after all these years in jail and several fruitless attempts to obtain parole, it was now time the court once and for all decided the issue. The Cape Argus reports that they asked the court to release Walus on parole after Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola last year refused parole. It was argued Walus had paid his dues, had genuine remorse for what he had done, and over the years had been rehabilitated and became a model prisoner. Advocate Marumo Moerane, acting on behalf of Lamola, said it was ironic that the Walus camp argued the principles of ubuntu, while Walus exhibited the opposite when he executed Hani. Moerane said Walus expressed his remorse only 20 years after the murder of Hani, when he applied for parole for the first time. Kubushi said she had regard for Lamola’s argument, that the nature of the crime had to be considered, as well as the scathing remarks made by the judge who had sentenced him.

Full Cape Argus report