Derby-Lewis lawyers to push for parole decision

20 October 2014 - 12:33 By Sapa
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Clive Derby-Lewis was convicted of killing SACP general secretary and anti-Apartheid activist Chris Hani. File picture.
Clive Derby-Lewis was convicted of killing SACP general secretary and anti-Apartheid activist Chris Hani. File picture.
Image: Adil Bradlow

Lawyers for Clive Derby-Lewis will this week file papers in the High Court in Pretoria in an attempt to push Justice Minister Michael Masutha to decide on his medical parole application.

Derby-Lewis's lawyer Marius Coertze said on Monday his client had signed a document allowing for the application to go ahead.

"I'm always hopeful... If it does not succeed this time, I don't see how it will ever succeed."

Derby-Lewis was convicted of conspiring to kill SA Communist Party general secretary Chris Hani by providing the gun Polish immigrant Janusz Walus used to kill him in the driveway of his home in Boksburg, on the East Rand, on April 10, 1993.

The 78-year-old former Conservative Party MP, who was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, has served more than 20 years of his sentence.

According to his wife Gaye, Derby-Lewis has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Coertze said Derby-Lewis had recently undergone an operation and been in a prison hospital ward for three months.

In June, another lawyer for Derby-Lewis, Elsabe Juin, said the correctional services department had promised to give urgent attention to his application for his medical parole, but would not commit to a date.

Coertze said notice of the latest application would be served on the ministry or the State attorney's office before a court date could be set.

On June 19, correctional services said it received an incomplete application for medical parole for Derby-Lewis and was waiting for a completed form.

Derby-Lewis has made various bids for parole since June 2010.

Earlier this year Masutha said the national council of correctional services recommended Derby-Lewis be granted parole.

Submissions by the affected families and the SACP would be taken into consideration before a decision could be made, he said at the time.

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