Ex-Olympic runner, Oscar Pistorius, has been granted early release from prison 11 years after he fatally shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in a crime that gripped the world.
The Department of Correctional Services made this known on Friday, November 24, 2023, saying a parole board reviewing whether the 37-year-old South African Paralympic star was fit for social reintegration decided to place him on parole from January 5, 2024.
“Mr Pistorius will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections and will be subjected to supervision in compliance with parole conditions until his sentence expires.”
Earlier, Steenkamp’s mother told the parole hearing that she did not believe the ex-athlete was rehabilitated for he had not shown true remorse.
“Rehabilitation requires someone to engage honestly, with the full truth of his crime and the consequences thereof. Nobody can claim to have remorse if they’re not able to engage fully with the truth,” June Steenkamp said in a statement to the board.
Known as the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs, Pistorius went from a public hero as a Paralympic champion to a convicted killer in hearings that caught the world’s attention a decade ago.
He shot and killed Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
He was initially jailed for five years in 2014 for culpable homicide by a high court, but the Supreme Court of Appeal in late 2015 found him guilty of murder after an appeal by prosecutors.
He was sent back to jail for six years in 2016, less than half the 15-year minimum term sought by prosecutors.
In 2017, the Supreme Court more than doubled his sentence to 13 years and five months, saying the six-year jail term was “shockingly lenient.”
The hearing held on Friday at a correctional centre outside Pretoria, where he is currently detained, was Pistorius’s second shot at parole in less than eight months.
He lost a first bid in March when the board found Pistorius had not completed the minimum detention period required to be let out.
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