The Polish assassin of the South African Communist Party leader, Chris Hani, said yesterday police had plied him with alcohol and professed to share his right-wing beliefs in order to get a confession.
The immigrant Janusz Walus is seeking amnesty from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Hani's murder in 1993, along with another white right-wing extremist, Clive DerbyLewis, who gave him the gun used in the killing. Both men are serving life sentences for the murder.
The two men have testified previously that their aim was to derail the transition from white rule to multi-racial democracy. Walus said his loathing of the Polish communist system had prompted him to carry out the assassination.
Resuming his testimony to the Truth Commission after a three-month adjournment, Walus said that he had broken his silence almost a week after his arrest in April 1993 after friendly spells of interrogation by security policeman Capt Nic Deetlefs.
Walus said he was persuaded that Capt Deetlefs was working for a right-wing organisation and had succeeded in infiltrating the security police force. He had even named Derby-Lewis as his accomplice because Capt Deetlefs had made him believe that Derby-Lewis would be given enough warning to evade arrest.
"He convinced me. I can only say now that I am ashamed I was so naive and so stupid," Walus said through a Polish interpreter.
During one marathon 14-hour interrogation, Walus said he drank beer with his police questioner and he suspected the drink was spiked with either a cocktail of stronger liquor or drugs.
"I suspect this was the main point, which made me feel relaxed, or even absentminded . . .
It was an interrogation that was rather unusual because it was in the form of a friendly chat. He underlined the whole time that he (the police officer) was on my side.
"It was because of the whole week of intensive interrogation, lack of sleep, alcohol and quite possibly drugs, that I was convinced and believed in all the stories," Walus said, adding this had led to his confession that he had pulled the trigger on Hani.
The Hani family's lawyer, veteran human rights activist George Bizos, sought to prove in cross-examination that Walus was a professional killer who had even applied for a job as a mercenary in 1989.
Walus admitted applying for the job but said he had not received a reply. The truth commission has set aside two weeks for the hearing.