Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympic runner who shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, to death on Valentine’s Day 2013, can leave prison and move to house arrest next week, South Africa’s Department of Corrections said yesterday.
A parole board at the prison where Pistorius has served nearly a year of his five-year sentence for manslaughter made the decision. It came after an initial ruling to release the athlete in August was canceled at the last minute after intervention by the justice minister.
This time, the board “approved the placement of offender Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision as from 20 October 2015,” the corrections department said in a statement following the meeting of the parole board earlier
yesterday.
Pistorius was acquitted of murder last year for the shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp, but prosecutors have appealed that trial verdict and will seek a murder conviction again at South Africa’s Supreme Court on November 3. The appeal will come just two weeks after Pistorius is freed next Tuesday. If Pistorius is convicted of murder by a panel of five judges at the appeal, he faces going back to prison
for 15 years, the minimum sentence for murder in South Africa, which no longer has the death penalty.
The spokeswoman for Pistorius’ family, Anneliese Burgess, said in a text message that they had been informed of the decision to release Pistorius but would not be commenting further.
Steenkamp’s parents are trying to “move on with their lives,” their lawyer told the AP.
“Whether Oscar Pistorius remains incarcerated or is
released, it’s not going to change anything in their lives,” lawyer Tania Koen said. “It makes no difference to them.”
But, “they still believe that 10 months or 12 months (in jail) is not enough for taking a life,” Koen said.
Source: Agence France-Presse
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