Shattered:

A distraught Limpho Hani‚ the widow of murdered SACP leader Chris Hani‚ at the parole application of her late husband’s killer. Janusz Walus launched his third parole application in the high court in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Janusz Walus’s lawyer says the government’s denial of parole for his client is unfair, unjust and unfairly prejudices him.

Walus, who is serving a life sentence for killing South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani in 1993, has appealed to the court to be paroled and deported to Poland, his home country, a request justice and correctional services minister Michael Masutha and the home affairs department argued was highly irregular.

Citing the July parole and deportation of two Taiwanese nationals who were convicted of murdering their victim, boiling her and feeding her to lions in 2002, Walus’s lawyer Roelof du Plessis said it was normal procedure for prisoners who were in the country illegally or who had their citizenship revoked — as Walus has had — to be deported.

“We have Walus on one hand being treated like this and these murderers being treated differently. Why? Because of political reasons, with the intention to incarcerate him forever.”

Du Plessis said that in August 2017 the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered Masutha to reconsider Walus’s parole application. Masutha denied Walus parole in November 2017 – “yet, documents from the parole board showed Walus was a suitable candidate for parole”.

State advocate Marumo Moerane said Walus was sentenced to life imprisonment, “and pending parole, he is obliged to serve life in jail. One of his intentions was to plunge the country into a possible bloody racial war, not a minor offence.”

Judgment was reserved.