South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius has been granted parole more than a decade after he gunned down his girlfriend through a locked bathroom door.
Pistorius, 37, was denied bond in March by a judge who said he had not served the minimum sentence, as CrimeOnline reported.
In 2014, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide and reckless endangerment and sentenced to five years in the death of Reeva Steenkamp, 29. In October 2015, he was released for good behavior and placed on house arrest.
A month after his release, his culpable homicide conviction was overturned and he was convicted of murder. He returned to custody in July 2016 to serve a six-year sentence — but that sentence was increased to 15 years after the National Prosecuting Authority deemed the punishment “shockingly lenient,” according to the Pretoria East Rekord.
Pistorius argued that he mistook Steenkamp for a burglar. Her family has steadfastly opposed his release because they, like the jury that convicted him, don’t believe his excuse.
According to NBC News, Pistorius, the celebrated double amputee sprinter known as “Blade Runner” for his specially made prosthetic running legs, learned at a hearing on Friday that he will be released on January 5, 2024. The South African Correctional Services Department said that the parole board decided he had a “positive support system” outside prison and that he may have to participate in a rehabilitation program.
Pistorius will likely have to wear an electronic monitoring device , and he will be barred from leaving Gauteng Province. He will also be “subjected to supervision in compliance with parole conditions until his sentence expires.”
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[Featured image: FILE – Oscar Pistorius/(AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File) and Reeva Steenkamp on the cover of her funeral program on February 19, 2013/(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam, File)]
