Hani killer had parole date

2008-10-02 19:36

Johannesburg - Chris Hani's killer Clive Derby-Lewis would have been a free man on October 15 following the recommendation of the parole board, his attorney said on Thursday.

Marius Coertze said: "On August 19 he appeared before the parole board in Pretoria on a recommendation they received from the case management committee.

"They recommended that Mr Derby-Lewis must be released on parole on October 15 2008."

Coertze said the board's recommendation, which was chaired by Victor Sepeng, was then forwarded to the regional commissioner of correctional services.

Because Derby-Lewis was 72 and had served 15 years of his sentence, he had become eligible for parole in terms of the Minimum Sentences and the Correctional Services acts.

Coertze said that Derby-Lewis was told by the parole board on September 22 that "the commissioner requested that the Hani family be informed of the coming parole.

"The parole board did not have the contact details of the Hani family. Mr Derby-Lewis - yes imagine that - supplied them with the information," said Coertze.

Week's notice

He said Derby-Lewis appeared before the parole board on Tuesday and was told that the week's notice given to the Hani family was insufficient.

Sepeng declined to comment, saying: "I am not allowed to talk to the media. You must speak to our communications department."

The e-mail sent to Chris Hani's widow, Limpho, to inform her of the parole hearing, has sparked an angry reaction from the SA Communist Party, the Young Communist League and the ANC Youth League.

Limpho Hani told Sapa on Thursday that she "will not respond to a casual e-mail. This must be done with decency".

She said she was not prepared to comment on the claim that Derby-Lewis had supplied the Parole Board with her contact details.

Asked if she would oppose his parole, she said: "That's a very interesting question. It's quite obvious."

She declined to speak further.

A statement released by the ANCYL read: "The ANCYL believes that granting parole to assassins will set a very wrong and unsustainable precedent, and could open space for political assassinations."

All three organisations demanded that parole for the two men must not be considered until they had disclosed all the information behind Hani's assassination.

- SAPA