The apartheid-era killer was spotted for the 1st time since his release at the Franschhoek Literary Festival.

JOHANNESBURG - The Sunday Times says it was aware apartheid-era killer Eugene de Kock would be attending its short-list announcement party, adding that the former apartheid police officer was invited by his publishing house.

De Kock was spotted for the first time since his release at the Franschhoek Literary Festival yesterday.

Apartheid-era death squad leader Eugene de Kock was seen attending this year's #FLF2016 #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/RVzjkVsbyU — Jacques Steenkamp (@JacqueSteenkamp) May 14, 2016

He had been keeping a low profile after spending more than 20 years in prison for several murders committed during apartheid.

Sunday Times Editor Bongani Siqoko says, "He was invited, not by us as the Sunday Times, but by his publisher. Invites were sent to publishers who then sent them out to their authors, and some of them did come as guests."

AUTHORS LASH OUT

Authors have lashed the Sunday Times Literary Awards for allowing the so-called "prime evil" to attend its ceremony.

Author Nakhane Touré says his presence was unacceptable.

"The part that hurts the most, except the anger, is that there are people whose lives were ruined by him and his presence is triggering an immense amount of pain. The fact that the Sunday times thinks its fine for him to be roaming around is very worrying."

Fellow Author Lauren Beukes says it was callous to invite de Kock.

"A lot of people were very upset. One black publisher was in tears and shaken. I went up to him and said: I think it's very inappropriate that you're here, people are in tears because you're here and I think you should leave. He said: thank you very much for telling me. Then he left."