The famous Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was granted parole after South African prison authorities granted it to him following a closed hearing at Atteridgeville Prison in Pretoria.
Oscar Pistorius had been in prison for 10 years for the murder of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, which occurred on Valentine’s Day 2013 at the home the two shared. “The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) confirms parole for Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius, effective January 5, 2024,” the institution said in a statement.
“Pistorius will serve the remainder of his sentence in the community corrections system and will be subject to supervision in compliance with the conditions of parole until his sentence expires,” the document added.
The hearing, requested by the athlete’s defense, was the second one requested to ask for parole since the first occasion was denied in March of this year, even though the convict argued that both his time in prison and the minimum required to qualify for this measure were unfairly increased, thus violating his “fundamental rights.”
Oscar Pistorius subsequently took his case to South Africa’s Constitutional Court, which finally ruled that the athlete was eligible for parole last October. The mother of the murdered model said before today’s hearing that she was not convinced that Pistorius was rehabilitated; however, she trusts the authorities, who had assured that he is sufficiently rehabilitated to have granted him parole.
Oscar Pistorius Murdered His Girlfriend Claiming a Panic Attack
Oscar Pistorius is serving a sentence for shooting Reeva Steenkamp, then 29, at his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day 2013, when he was at the peak of his career and had amassed a fortune in his sporting career.
He shot her four times through the closed bathroom door and unsuccessfully tried to defend that he panicked when he mistook the model for a burglar who would have gained access to the home through the bathroom window. Following a trial that captured worldwide media attention, Pistorius was initially sentenced in October 2014 to five years in prison for reckless homicide, but the prosecution appealed the ruling.
In 2015, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal overturned that conviction and found him guilty of murder, referring the case back to a trial court which, in July 2016, sentenced Pistorius to six years in prison for murder. However, following another appeal by the prosecution, the Supreme Court of Appeal raised the sentence in November 2017 to fifteen years, the minimum contemplated by law in murder cases barring exceptional situations. Until today, when he was granted parole, after spending almost 10 years in prison.
This story was written in Spanish by Lizbeth García in Cultura Colectiva
