The parents of Pistorius’ girlfriend have spoken out about his probation

Parents of model Reeva Steenkampthe girlfriend of South African athlete Oscar Pistorius and for whose murder in 2013 he is serving a prison sentence, they oppose your request for parolesaid his lawyer, Tania Koen, on Friday.

“It was a very traumatic experience (for the parents). As you can imagine, it hurts. Oscar Pistorius needs to be seen again this morning,” Koen told reporters before the start of a hearing for a board to decide whether to grant parole.

“He killed your son. I don’t think he should be released. I feel you have shown no remorse. He is not being rehabilitated because, if he was, he would have confessed and told what really happened that night,” said the lawyer.

Koen spoke outside the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Center in Pretoriawhere today’s hearing is being held behind closed doors, where Steenkamp’s mother, June Steenkamp, ​​will present written and oral statements.

On the same site, the mother herself declared herself “very nervous” before the hearing and advanced that it would be “very difficult to be in the same room” with Pistorius.

Journalists asked if he was rejecting the athlete’s parole, June Steenkamp replied: “Yes, I don’t believe his story.”

The lawyer added that the parents are “still grieving” and that, even though “ten years seems like a long time (…), for them time is not worth it. They miss her (her daughter) every day.”

The board – which includes representatives from the prison service, police and civilians – will decide whether the Paralympian is eligible for parole after serving half of his 15-year sentence.

Last year, Pistorius petitioned the Pretoria High Court to compel prison officials to hold a parole hearing, arguing that he had served more than half of his sentence.

Under South African law, offenders who serve half of their sentences are eligible for parole, a milestone Pistorius says he has reached.

The athlete assured that he did everything to rehabilitate himself and show full remorse, according to a statement submitted to the court.

After a trial that attracted worldwide media attention, Pistorius was initially sentenced in October 2014 to five years in prison for culpable homicide, when Judge Thokozile Masipa considered there were extenuating circumstances, although the Prosecutor’s Office appealed against that decision.

In November 2015, the South African High Court of Appeal overturned the athlete’s manslaughter conviction and found him guilty of murder, sending the case back to the trial court for a retrial.

In July 2016, Magistrate Masipa sentenced Pistorius to six years in prison for murder.

After another appeal by the Prosecutor’s Office, however, the Supreme Court of Appeal raised the sentence in November 2017 to fifteen years, the minimum contemplated by South African law in murder cases except in exceptional circumstances.

In practice, that sentence would mean thirteen years and five months in prison, minus the time Pistorius – who has spent time on bail and under house arrest – has already spent in prison.

Last July, the Department of Correctional Services confirmed that a meeting had taken place between Pistorius and Steenkamp’s parents last month.

The encounter is part of the athlete’s rehabilitation, a requirement to apply for probation.

Pistorius is serving time for shooting Steenkamp to death at his home in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day 2013, when he was at the height of his fame and amassed a fortune from his sporting career.

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 apartment through the bathroom window.

Born with a genetic problem that caused his parents to amputate both legs below the knee when he was 11 months old, Pistorius achieved world fame by running in the 2012 London Olympics with two carbon prostheses.