A bid has been launched to keep the murderer of SA communist Party leader Chris Hani from being released on parole in the next few days.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha this week, filed an appeal against the Pretoria High Court ruling earlier this month, that Janusz Walus should be released from prison after serving 23 years of a life sentence.
The intention is to keep Walus behind bars pending the outcome of the appeal.
However, Julian Knight, the attorney representing Walus, said they would in turn apply to the court for his client be released on parole pending the outcome of Masutha’s appeal. They would also oppose the minister’s application for leave to appeal.
Lawyers representing the minister filed the application for leave to appeal on Wednesday morning, with the minister believing the court “erred in its judgment and is of the view that there are prospects of success on appeal,” the Department of Justice and Correctional Services said.
According to Knight, the leave to appeal application did not come as a surprise as it was expected the Justice minister would differ in opinion from the High Court.
On 10 March, the court overruled a decision by Masutha not to grant Walus parole, a move widely criticised by the ANC and the SACP.
Judge Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen ordered the convicted murderer be released within 14 days, meaning Walus would have been paroled by 4 April.
No date has yet been set for the hearing of the application for leave to appeal.
Walus, a Poland-born naturalised SA citizen, was initially sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. He has now served 23 years of the sentence for the 1993 cold-blooded murder of Hani in the SACP general-secretary driveway at his Boksburg home.
Both the SACP and Hani’s widow, Limpho Hani, have criticised the ruling as biased.
Co-conspirator in the murder, Clive Derby-Lewis, who provided Walus with the weapon used in the shooting, was released on medical parole last year.
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