JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – 1997: Janusz Walus, Chris Hani’s killer during his amnesty hearing at Benoni Town Hall. (Photo by Gallo Images/Oryx Media Archive).
Poland wants Janusz Walus freed
Polish officials reveal that Poland and SA have been in disagreement over the imprisonment of Chris Hani’s murderer, Janusz Walus.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – 1997: Janusz Walus, Chris Hani’s killer during his amnesty hearing at Benoni Town Hall. (Photo by Gallo Images/Oryx Media Archive).
A Polish government official told the Sunday Times that Poland previously made requests to Pretoria for Janusz Walus’s release but to no avail.
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‘RELATIONS BETWEEN POLAND AND SA STRAINED’
The senior Polish officials also revealed to the publication that Poland wanted Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Walus to be freed and repatriated and dismissed the Ukraine peace mission.
This comes after the SAA plane carrying President Cyril Ramaphosa’s security staff and journalists had been prevented from leaving Warsaw this week.
News24 reveals that clearance has been given for the chartered plane to depart Warsaw. It isn’t clear why President Cyril Ramaphosa’s security team and members of the media were not allowed to disembark upon landing at Warsaw Airport.
“Relations between South Africa and Poland were already strained over the continued incarceration of Janusz Walus,” reports Sunday Times.
The highly placed Polish government official also told the Sunday Times: “We think that this person committed his crimes, he spent enough time in prison for over 30 years, he’s old. I don’t think he will hurt anybody else, also he hurt only Chris Hani; he’s a political murderer, not the normal one. We think that maybe one day he will leave South Africa and spend the rest of his time with his daughter here in Poland.”
The Polish official added that the Walus has now spent more time in detention than the late South African president, Nelson Mandela.
READ: Far-right Polish soccer fans idolising killer Janusz Walus
JANUSZ WALUS RELEASED ON PAROLE
The Polish-born killer, Janusz Walus, who was originally sentenced to death for killing Hani was given a restricted form of parole in December 2022.
A spokesperson for the department of justice and correctional services, Chrispin Phiri told Sunday Times that Walus was still effectively serving his sentence.
“It means at any random time a correctional service officer can come to a residence, which we have provided, and inspect whether you are there and complying with certain conditions,” said Phiri
Phiri also revealed that the present government administration had not received any requests for the release of Walus, though such an approach might have been made by previous administrations.
He added that the nature of the crime we’re dealing with here is equivalent to killing Martin Luther King: “an important political figure in the struggle for our liberation, so it is important that justice is seen to be done.”
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