Oscar Pistorius to be freed after serving half of 13-year murder sentence

Nov. 24 (UPI) -- The South African former paralympic champion, Oscar Pistorius, is to be freed from jail on parole after serving half of a 13-year sentence for the 2013 murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, the country's Justice Ministry said Friday.

The 37-year-old's release date from the Atteridgeville Correctional Center, just outside the capital Pretoria, has been set for Jan. 5, according to a department of corrections statement posted on X.

The Parole Board took the decision to allow Pistorius to complete his sentence under supervision in the community after taking into account all submissions regarding Pistorius' character and that he was a first-time offender.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp, 29, multiple times through the bathroom door of the Petoria apartment they shared on Valentine's Day in 2013, claiming he believed he was shooting an intruder.

His parole placement was not opposed by Reeva's mother, June Steenkamp, but in a letter to the parole board she questioned Pistorius' rehabilitation in prison and whether his "huge anger issues" had been addressed adequately.

Mrs. Steenkamp, who did attend the parole hearing in Pretoria, added that she would be "concerned for the safety of any woman" who encounters him on the outside.

Father, Barry Steenkamp, died in September with Mrs. Steenkamp saying grief at the way their daughter's life ended and the decade-long ordeal that followed had taken a huge toll.

An earlier application for parole back in March was refused with the board ruling Pistorius had not completed the period of minimum detention to qualify for early release.

At the time the board ruled he would not be eligible to re-apply until August 2024 but that was subsequently overruled by South Africa's Constitutional Court, paving the way for Friday's parole hearing.

The double amputee rose to worldwide prominence, albeit controversially, for his use of blade-like prosthetics that saw him become the first amputee to run in an Olympics, winning a gold medal in the men's 400-meter race at the London 2012 Games.

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