Tsafendas was initially held on Robben Island, then after four months was transferred to Pretoria Central Prison. There he occupied a cell on death row that was specially built for him next to the execution chamber where men were hanged. Tsafendas was subjected to some form of inhuman and cruel torture for most of his imprisonment. In 1989, he was transferred to Zonderwater Prison near Cullinan. In 1994, and after apartheid had collapsed, Tsafendas was visited in prison by two Greek Orthodox priests he already knew and told them that he killed Verwoerd because he was "a dictator and a tyrant who oppressed his people." Tsafendas attempted to justify the assassination and told them: