JOHANESBURG — A South African judge yesterday dismissed a request by the justice minister to block the release from prison of the killer of anti apartheid campaigner Chris Hani, the latest twist in a saga that has revived memories of the country ‘s liberation struggle.
It was not immediately clear when Janusz Walus, a Polish immigrant who has served more than 20 years of a life sentence for the 1993 murder of Hani, would be released.
The decision to free Walus has caused anger in a country still dealing with the legacy of the brutality meted out by the white minority regime that prevailed from 1948 to 1994. “The leave for appeal is dismissed,” Judge Nicoline Janse van Nieuwenhuizen of the High Court in Pretoria said during a brief televised court session.
The government ‘s lawyer said the state would consider filing an appeal at the Supreme Court to have Walus ‘ parole blocked.
