A South African court ruled Thursday that a Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, 63, who shot and killed the South African anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani in 1993, should be released on parole after 23 years behind bars. Many South Africans, including the ruling ANC party are outraged by this decision.
Walus is serving a life sentence for the murder, which took the country to the brink of a race war and sent shockwaves across the world.
“The court has ordered (Walus) be released within 14 days and the matter be referred back to the parole board to set his parole conditions,” Walus’s lawyer Julian Knight told AFP.
The African National Congress, in power since the end of apartheid in 1994, in a statement, called the judgment a “travesty of justice” and said Walus should be sent back to Poland:
“(Hani’s) death robbed our nation of a committed revolutionary who embodied the undying resolve to freedom and liberation. The African National Congress demands that Janusz Walus is immediately deported to his country of origin on his release, never to return to South Africa.”
A supporter of the extreme right-wing movement, Walus immigrated to South Africa from then-communist Poland in 1981. According to Knight, he is now a South African citizen.
I cannot imagine what life will be like for this killer if he stays in South Africa. I would probably be best advised to voluntarily return to Poland. I will be surprised if he survives the walk from the prison gate to the awaiting vehicle. READ MORE
This is Walus then and now: #DEPORTWALUS #JUSTICEforCHRIS #WALUSisaKILLER
