South African ex-Paralympic star released 11 years after murdering girlfriend

Nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, South African former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius, has been released on parole and is now at home. In 2013, he shot her multiple times through a bathroom door, later saying he had mistaken her for a burglar. “The Department of Correctional Services (is) able to confirm […]

Nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, South African former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius, has been released on parole and is now at home.

In 2013, he shot her multiple times through a bathroom door, later saying he had mistaken her for a burglar.

“The Department of Correctional Services (is) able to confirm that Oscar Pistorius is a parolee, effective from 5 January 2024.

“He was admitted into the system of Community Corrections and is now at home,” the country’s prisons department said in a statement.

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Pistorius, now 37, has spent about eight and a half years in jail as well as seven months under home arrest before he was sentenced for murder. A parole board in November decided he could be freed after completing more than half his sentence.

According to BBC, under South African law, all offenders are entitled to be considered for parole once they have served half their total sentence, which for Pistorius was finally set in 2017 at 13 years and five months.

Reuters quoting Reeva’s mother June in a statement shared by the Steenkamp family lawyer on Friday, said: “There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back.”

“We, who remain behind, are the ones serving a life sentence,” she said, adding her only desire was to be allowed to live in peace after Pistorius’ release on parole.

A monitoring official will keep an eye on him until his sentence expires in December 2029, whom Pistorius will have to inform if he seeks job opportunities or moves to a new address.

He is also required to continue therapy on anger management and attend sessions on gender-based violence as part of his parole conditions , the Steenkamp family has said.

According to June, the conditions imposed by the parole board had affirmed her belief in the South African justice system as they send out a clear message that gender-based violence is taken seriously.

“The conditions imposed by the parole board, which includes anger management courses and programs on gender-based violence, send out a clear message that gender based violence is taken seriously.

“Has there been justice for Reeva? Has Oscar served enough time? There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back. We, who remain behind, are the ones serving a life sentence,” she said.

BBC reported that Reeva, who was 29 when she died, was a law graduate and successful model who also worked as a TV presenter.

She had planned to start a law firm to help abused women after graduating.

Ms Steenkamp was three months into her relationship with Pistorius when he fired four shots with a pistol through the door of a toilet cubicle at his house in Pretoria in the early hours of 14 February 2013.

The state charged Pistorius with murder but he was convicted in 2014 of the lesser offense of culpable homicide, or manslaughter.

The following year, judges at the Supreme Court of Appeal changed his conviction to murder, saying that his version of events was inconsistent and improbable and that he had “fired without having a rational or genuine fear that his life was in danger”.