The Constitutional Court docket of South Africa Monday ordered the parole of Janusz Walus, a prisoner presently serving life imprisonment for the homicide of Communist chief Chris Hani.
Walus filed an enchantment utility earlier than the Constitutional Court docket below Section 33 of the Constitution learn with Section 6 of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA). He contended that his rights enshrined in Section 12(1)(e) of the Constitution have been infringed by the denial of his parole. Walus argued that he’s entitled to parole when it comes to the provisions of the Correctional Services Act of 1959 (1959 Act), because it was relevant on the date of the fee of the crime. Moreover, Walus contended {that a} jail sentence that’s so lengthy {that a} prisoner has no likelihood of being launched on the expiry of the sentence or on parole quantities to merciless, inhuman and degrading punishment.
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo noticed that the problems raised by this matter will have an effect on many different prisoners who serve life sentences. The court docket held that the essential query earlier than us is, “whether or not there’s a level within the life sentence of a prisoner past which the character and seriousness of the crime and the sentencing remarks of the trial court docket can’t be used to justify denying her or him parole.” The court docket directed the Minister of Justice and Correctional Providers to position Walus on parole on such phrases and situations as he could deem applicable and to take all steps needed to make sure that Walus is launched on parole inside ten days.
Hani was the chief of the ruling African Nationwide Congress’s army wing and the final secretary of the South African Communist Occasion (SACP). Hani was killed in Boksburg in an assassination that threatened to plunge South Africa into political violence forward of its transition from white minority rule to democracy. On October 15, 1993, Walus was convicted of Hani’s homicide and sentenced to loss of life. In November 2000, his loss of life sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Walus has made quite a few functions for parole; all have been refused.
