Ex-Paralympian Oscar Pistorius has been released from South African custody under strict conditions, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, platinumnewsng.com is reporting.
It was confirmed on Friday morning by officials that Pistorius was “at home”, having served half of his more than 13-year sentence. However, Mrs June Steenkamp, mother of the deceased was said to have accepted the decision to release the former South African athlete while adding that her family was the one “serving a life sentence”.
The now 37-year-old double amputee popularly known as “The Blade Runner” had shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp multiple times through a door in 2013, later claimed he had mistaken her for a burglar but was eventually convicted of murder in 2015 after an appeal court overruled an earlier verdict of culpable homicide.
It was then reported in the news that the deceased and Pistorius were in a three-month-old relationship 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 February 14, 2013.
Under South African law, all offenders are entitled to be considered for parole once they have served half their total sentence, which for the Blade Runner was finally set in 2017 at 13 years and five months.
According to South Africa’s Department of Correctional Services, the former star will be treated like anyone else on parole despite his high public profile. This means that he will be confined to his home for certain hours of the day and he is banned from drinking alcohol. He is also not permitted to speak to the media until his sentence expires in 2029.
According to her statement in the media, Mrs June Steenkamp claimed that the family had “always known that parole is part of the South African legal system” and had “always said that the law must take its course”.
She also said to have welcomed the conditions that come with the parole which include anger management courses and programmes on gender-based violence while adding that those decisions had “affirmed Barry and my belief in the South African justice system,” referring to her late husband.
“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.
“My only desire is that I will be allowed to live my last years in peace with my focus remaining on the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation, to continue Reeva’s legacy,” Mrs Steenkamp bemoaned.
The State had earlier charged Pistorius in 2014 with murder but he was convicted of the lesser offence of culpable homicide, or manslaughter while he was in prison since October 2014, when he was first convicted. However, in 2015, Judges at the Supreme Court of Appeal changed his conviction to murder, stating that his version of events was inconsistent and improbable and that he had been “fired without having a rational or genuine fear that his life was in danger”.