South Africa’s minister of justice on Wednesday filed an appeal against the court order to grant parole to Chris Hani’s assassin Janusz Walus, the ministry.
“The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Adv Michael Masutha, has decided to appeal against the judgment delivered by the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria on 10 March 2016,” it said.
The court had set aside the minister’s refusal to grant the Polish immigrant who shot Hani, the charismatic leader of the South African Communist Party, 23 years ago parole and ordered him to set parole conditions within 14 days of the judgment.
“The legal representatives of the minister have today filed and served a notice of application for leave to appeal against the judgment with the registrar of the high court,” justice ministry spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said.
“The minister believes that the honourable court erred in its judgment and is of the view that there are prospects of success on appeal and that the Appeal Court will arrive at a different conclusion.”
Walus, 63, who left then communist Poland in 1981 to join his father and brother in South Africa, shot and killed Hani on Easter Sunday April 10, 1993 – a year before the country’s first democratic elections brought Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) to power.
He was initially sentenced to death, but this was converted to life in prison after the abolition of capital punishment.
The court order has caused outrage amid calls for Walus to be immediately deported to Poland.
The ruling African National Congress termed the court’s decision “extremely insensitive” and said it ignored the fact that Hani’s murder had brought South Africa to the brink of civil war as the country was emerging from apartheid rule.
– African News Agency (ANA)
