Eugene de Kock: why is 'Prime Evil' being released from jail?

Apartheid assassin Eugene de Kock has been granted parole after serving just 20 years in prison, South Africa's justice minister has announced.

The 66-year old, dubbed 'Prime Evil', was a police officer responsible for the murder, kidnap and torture of hundreds of black activists during the Apartheid era.

The decision has shocked and angered many South Africans, particularly the families of his victims."He's a savage," Victor Makoke, told AFP ahead of the decision. "He needs to rot in jail." So why is he being released?

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What did he do?

He was the commander of the infamous police death squad in the 1980s called C-10. Its headquarters were at Vlakplaas, a farm near Pretoria, where some of the worst crimes of Apartheid were either committed or planned.

Officers hunted down and killed hundreds of ANC activists and sympathisers across Southern Africa. One of the most chilling reports from Vlakplaas came from a former commander who described how bodies were disposed of on the farm. Dirk Coetzee said the men used to stand around the bodies burning on wood and tyres, drinking brandy and rum and cooking meat. Another trademark technique was to strap men to explosives in order to destroy the evidence.

De Kock was arrested in 1994, the same year Nelson Mandela was elected president. At a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearing, he confessed to over 100 acts of murder and various other crimes and accepted full responsibility for the atrocities committed by C10. The next year he was sentenced to two life terms and 212 years in prison.

While in jail, De Kock alleged that former president FW de Klerk had hands that were "soaked in blood" for ordering the political killings. De Klerk, who negotiated South Africa's transition to democracy with Mandela, denies the claims.

Sandra Mama, a widow of one of the men killed by De Kock, told the BBC that many of those responsible will never face justice. "[De Kock] got the instructions from the top and they got away with it. They're living, you know... they're amongst us today and one man is taking the fall," she said.

During his time in prison, De Kock wrote a letter to the families of several of his victims. In one he sent to the family of Bheki Mlangeni, a lawyer he murdered with a letter bomb, he said: "There is no greater punishment than to have to live with the consequences of the most terrible deed with no-one to forgive you. For me, even my own death can't compare."

Why is he being released?

De Kock is being freed "in the interests of nation-building", said justice minister Michael Masutha. He told journalists that the De Kock had expressed remorse for his crimes and had assisted authorities with recovering the remains of some of his victims.

The decision is dividing a nation that has for over 20 years been battling with balancing justice and reconciliation."It is a daunting prospect for a country much changed, but still deeply scarred, by the years of racist white rule," reports The Economist.

While many South Africans believe De Kock and everyone else involved in the death squads should die in prison, others are calling for forgiveness, including the families of some of the victims.

"I think it will actually close a chapter in our history because we've come a long way," said Mama. "I think his release will just once again help with the reconciliation process because there are still a lot of things that we need to do as a country."