The athlete of South Africa Oscar Pistorius who is serving a sentence for murdering his girlfriend in 2013, the model Reeva Steenkamphas asked the court to force prison authorities to consider his parole, the News24 channel reported on Wednesday, which had access to the lawsuit.
Pistorius asked the High Court of Pretoria to force prison officials to hold a parole hearing, saying he had served more than half of his sentence for killing Steenkamp.
Under South African law, offenders who serve half of their sentences can be eligible for parole, a milestone Pistorius said he had reached.
The 35-year-old athlete claims he has done everything in his power to rehabilitate himself and has shown deep remorse, according to a statement sent to the court.
Pistorius was initially sentenced in October 2014 to five years in prison, with the judge considering mitigating circumstances.
After an appeal from the Prosecutor’s Office, however, the Supreme Court of South Africa raised the sentence in November 2017 to fifteen years, the minimum contemplated by South African law in murder cases.
The athlete may be legally eligible for parole from March 2023, according to a ruling issued in early 2021 by the South African Supreme Court of Appeal.
Last July, the Government Department of Correctional Services confirmed that a meeting between Pistorius and Steenkamp’s parents took place last month.
The meeting is part of the athlete’s rehabilitation, a requirement to apply for parole.
Pistorius is serving time for shooting Steenkamp to death at his home in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day 2013.
He shot her four times through the closed bathroom door and, during the trial, unsuccessfully tried to argue that he panicked when he mistook Steenkamp for a burglar who entered the house through the bathroom window.
Born with a genetic problem that led his parents to decide to amputate both of his legs below the knee when he was 11 months old, Pistorius achieved world fame running in London Olympics in 2012, in two carbon prostheses. EFE
Source: La Verdad
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