Pretoria - The lawyer acting for ailing rightwinger Clive Derby-Lewis is heading to the High Court in Pretoria for a review of Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha’s refusal to grant him medical parole.
Julian Knight, who successfully managed to secure parole for Eugene de Kock this year, said while the matter was urgent, they would first meet Judge President Dunstan Mlambo for the latter to give them directives as to the way forward.
“Our application is in the process of being filed, but we want the judge president to give us directives as to time-frames the various parties must have to file their opposing and replying affidavits. He must then appoint a judge to our case.”
Knight estimated that the review application would be heard next month.
The 78-year-old Derby-Lewis, said to be one of the oldest prisoners in the country, has already launched five failed applications to try and secure parole.
He has already served more than 20 years behind bars for the April 10, 1993, murder of South African Communist Party (SACP) Secretary General Chris Hani. Both he and Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, who gunned Hani down in the driveway of his Boksburg home, were sentenced to death which was later commuted to life imprisonment.
Derby-Lewis supplied the gun to Walus.
Knight said while the matter was urgent, the practice directives called for the judge president to decide on the way forward, as the application was bulky and consisted of thousands of pages. These included the various medical reports on Derby-Lewis’s condition, as well as documents regarding the previous applications for parole and medical parole.
While Derby-Lewis’ application is almost ready to be filed, it first has to be served on Correctional Services, as well as on the SACP and on Limpho Hani, the widow of Hani. This is because both Limpho Hani and the SACP were officially added by the court in December as parties to the proceedings by Derby-Lewis to be granted medical parole.
Derby-Lewis, who is suffering from, among others, lung cancer, has been treated full-time at the Eugene Marais Hospital since last year.
The parole board earlier recommended that he be released on medical parole, but Masutha turned this down in January.
His refusal was mainly based on a dispute over whether medical reports stating Derby-Lewis had stage three lung cancer, in fact referred to Derby-Lewis.
Derby-Lewis was adamant that the report setting out his condition related to him, as all the details, except the name, was his.
When he was admitted to the hospital the parties agreed that he should be booked in under a different name for security reasons.
Doctors last year painted a bleak picture of Derby-Lewis’s health and expressed their doubts at that he would live much longer.
The court in December ruled that the minister had to decide on whether or not to grant medical parole by the end of January.
It was stated in that application that his health had deteriorated to such an extent that he was even too weak to undergo surgery. The court was told he was old and sick and needed frail care, which he wouldn’t receive in prison.
Derby-Lewis was admitted to hospital after he was stabbed by a fellow inmate more than nine months ago.
Pretoria News