Joburg - According to the British newspaper The Observer, who spoke to the daughter of Janus Walus, Ewa Walus, whom he left behind in the town of Radom, central Poland, with his mother, she received funds to support his father's appeals but not from fascist or neo-Nazi organisations.
The paper reported that she had not seen him since a brief visit to Poland in 1992.
The report details how she found out about the decision on his parole on television.
“First we heard it was a Polish immigrant, and then that it was Janusz Waluś. I was really scared when I saw my mother — she aged 10 years in one minute,” she said.
She told the paper that his release would not have been possible if he had not been able to pursue repeated appeals for parole because of the financial assistance provided by his Polish well-wishers, although she insists that she does not accept donations from fascist or neo-Nazi organisations.
But according to the article, Walus recently wrote to Polish soccer teams Legia Warsaw and Raków Czstochowa, expressing his deep and warm gratitude “for your spiritual and material support”.
“For all your campaigns. For the postcards. For the demonstrations in the stadiums. For the funds that make my or our legal battle possible. I don’t know what I would do without your help,” he wrote.
Most concerning in the report was that Walus had become a cult figure among right-wing Polish football fans, in particular, who according to The Observer frequently display banners like “Free Janusz Waluś” .
Rafał Pankowski, a professor at the Collegium Civitas in Warsaw and director of the Never Again association, commented in the article that his cult status started in the 1990s.
“It represents not only the growing acceptance of racism, but also a growing acceptance of politically-motivated violence,” he said.
The Star