THE South African Communist Party won a victory yesterday in its fight against the release of late general secretary Chris Hani’s assassin.

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria dismissed killer Janusz Walus’s application to be released from prison based on “exceptional circumstances” before the appeal processes against his parole were exhausted.

Judge Nicoline Janse van Nieuwenhuizen also awarded costs to the the SACP and Mr Hani’s family, who had brought the appeal.

The same judge granted the Polish-born far-right hit man parole last month, prompting outrage among the Hani family, the SACP, the ruling ANC and trade union federation Cosatu.

But yesterday Ms Van Nieuwenhuizen rejected Mr Walus’s lawyers’ claims that he would suffer irreparable harm if he was not released.

Earlier this month the judge rejected Justice Minister Michael Masutha’s appeal against the parole ruling, which is now going to a judicial review.

The government and liberation movement have always opposed the release of Mr Walus and his accomplice, Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis, as they have never shown sincere remorse nor revealed who ultimately ordered the 1993 assassination.

The killing almost derailed talks between the ANC and the apartheid regime that resulted in South Africa’s first democratic elections the next year.

SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo said: “The murder was calculated to plunge our country into full-blown civil war and could not have been the product of two individuals only.”

Next month the SACP’s central committee will discuss renewing its long-standing campaign for an official inquest into the assassination.