South African prison authorities today granted parole to famed South African Olympian Óscar Pistoriusin since 2014 for murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, a year earlier.
“The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) confirms the parole of Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius, with effect from January 5, 2024,” the institution said in a statement after a closed-door hearing at Atteridgeville Prison, Pretoria.
“Pistorius will serve the remainder of his sentence in the Community Correctional System and will be monitored in accordance with the terms of his probation until the end of his sentence,” the document continues.
It was the second time Pistorius had applied for parole, which was rejected last March, although the convict argued that both his prison term and the minimum sentence required to benefit from the measure had been unreasonably increased. and thus violate their “fundamental rights”.
Pistorius, 37, then took his case to South Africa’s Constitutional Court, which ruled last October that the athlete was entitled to parole.
Before next Friday’s hearing began, the mother of the murdered model, June Steenkamp, showed that
and had amassed a fortune from his sporting career.
You shot the door four times, closed the bathroom, and tried in vain to justify panicking when you mistook the model for a burglar who had entered the house through the bathroom window.
“I don’t believe the Oscar version […] I don’t know anyone who does that. “My sweet daughter was screaming for her life, so loud that the neighbors could hear,” Steenkamp’s mother wrote in her letter on Friday.
“Rehabilitation requires that a person honestly face the full truth about his crime and its consequences. No one can say they regret it if they cannot fully engage with the truth,” he added.
After a trial that attracted worldwide media attention, Pistorius was initially sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter in October 2014, but the Public Prosecution Service appealed the sentence.
In 2015, the High Court of South Africa quashed this conviction and he was acquitted of murder. The case was referred back to a lower court, which sentenced Pistorius to six years in prison for murder in July 2016.
However, following a new appeal by the Public Prosecution Service, the case was referred to the Supreme Court, which increased the sentence in November 2017 to fifteen years, the minimum provided by law in murder cases, except in exceptional situations.
In practice, this trial meant thirteen years and five months in prison, after deducting the time that Pistorius – who was out on bail and under house arrest for some time – had already spent in prison.
Born with a genetic problem that led his parents to amputate both legs. At 11 months old, Pistorius achieved worldwide fame by running below the knees at the London Olympics (2012) on two carbon prostheses.
Source: La Neta Neta
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
