AFP, JOHANNESBURG: A South African court ruled Thursday that a Polish immigrant who shot dead the anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani in 1993 should be released on parole after 23 years behind bars. Janusz Walus, 63, is serving a life sentence for the murder, which took the country to the brink of a race war and sent shockwaves across the world. Protests erupted in black townships following the assassination of Hani, who often spoke out against violence. “The court has ordered (Walus) be released within 14 days and the matter be referred back to the parole board to set his parole conditions,” Walus’s lawyer Julian Knight told AFP. A supporter of the extreme right-wing, Walus immigrated to South Africa from then-communist Poland in 1981. Last year, the man who provided Walus with the gun he used to kill Hani was released on medical grounds. Clive Derby-Lewis, 79, who is suffering from lung cancer went to court after several unsuccessful applications to the parole board.