Oscar Pistorius granted parole

Prison authorities in South Africa South Africa’s famous athlete Oscar Pistorius was granted parole on Fridayin prison since 2014 for killing his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, ​​a year earlier.

“The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) confirms parole for Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius, effective from January 5, 2024“said that institution in a statement, after a closed-door hearing was held at Atteridgeville prison in Pretoria.

Pistorius, 36, He asked the Constitutional Court to declare him eligible for conditional release.after it was rejected in March.

The athlete contended that his prison time and the minimum required to qualify for that measure were unfairly increased. which represents a “violation” of their “fundamental rights.”

Pistorius asked the Pretoria High Court in 2022 to order a parole hearing, by keeping him from serving more than half of his sentencea requirement of South African law to be a candidate for that measure.

But on March 31, the parole board concluded that “the prisoner has not completed the minimum period of detention” and marked August 2024 for another deliberation process.

However, the Constitutional Court confirmed this October that “no later than March 21, 2023, the plaintiff will have served half of his sentence.”

Following a trial that garnered worldwide media attention, Pistorius He was initially sentenced in October 2014 to five years in prison for reckless homicide.when the justice considered that there were mitigating circumstances, but the Prosecutor’s Office appealed the decision.

In November 2015, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal overturned that verdict and found him guilty of murder.which referred the case back to a lower court where, in July 2016, Pistorius was sentenced to six years in prison for murder.

However, after another appeal by the Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Court of Appeal increased the sentence in November 2017 to fifteen years. the minimum contemplated by the law in cases of murder except in exceptional circumstances.

That date, 2017, was finally considered by the Supreme Court of Appeal as the starting point to determine last March that the athlete had not yet reached half of his sentence.

In practice, that sentence meant 13 years and five months in prison.after deducting the time Pistorius – who spent a period on bail and under house arrest – spent in prison.

Pistorius serving time for shooting Steenkamp at his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day 2013when he was at the peak of his fame and amassed a fortune in his sports career.

He shot her four times through the closed bathroom door. and, during the trial, he unsuccessfully tried to argue that he was confused 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 eleven months old, Pistorius gained international fame by running in the London Olympics in 2012.in two carbon prostheses.