PRETORIA: Oscar Pistorius, South Africa’s ex-Olympic runner, was granted early release from jail on Friday, a decade after he fatally shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in a murder that captivated the globe, prison officials said.
A parole board deciding whether Pistorius, 37, was competent for social reintegration chose to release him on January 5, according to the department of corrections.
“Mr Pistorius will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections and will be subjected to supervision in compliance with parole conditions until his sentence expires” .
Earlier in the parole hearing, Steenkamp’s mother stated that she did not feel the ex-athlete was rehabilitated since he had not demonstrated genuine regret.
“Rehabilitation necessitates an honest engagement with the full truth of his crime and its consequences.” Nobody can claim regret if they are unable to engage fully with the reality,” June Steenkamp said in a board statement.
Her spokeswoman, however, informed the board that she was not opposed to Pistorius being granted parole.
Pistorius’ second parole hearing in less than eight months took place at a correctional facility outside Pretoria, where he is presently incarcerated.
Pistorius lost his first bid in March when the board determined he had not fulfilled the minimum prison period necessary to be released.
The Constitutional Court concluded last month that this was an error, clearing the path for a fresh hearing.
Pistorius shot Steenkamp, a model, four times through the bathroom door of his ultra-secure Pretoria home in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013.
After a protracted trial and multiple appeals, he was convicted guilty of murder and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2017. He was known globally as the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prostheses.
He had pleaded not guilty and said he mistaken Steenkamp for a burglar and killed her in a fury.
June Steenkamp, on the other hand, has stated that she does not believe him.
“I do not believe Oscar’s version,” she stated in her statement to the board, which a family representative read to the reporters outside the prison institution.
“My dear child screamed for her life so loudly that the neighbours could hear her.” I’m not sure what made him decide to shoot through a closed door four times at someone with hollow-point ammo when he knew it was Reeva.”
Nonetheless, she stated that she had forgiven the former sprinter “long ago, as I knew most certainly that I would not be able to survive if I had to cling to my anger.”
Pistorius saw Steenkamp’s parents as part of his rehabilitation last year, according to officials, in a procedure designed to ensure convicts “acknowledge the harm they have caused.”
June Steenkamp did not attend the parole hearing on Friday, but was represented by a family representative and a lawyer.
Barry Steenkamp, Steenkamp’s father, died in September at the age of 80.
In her statement, the widow stated, “I have no doubt that he died of a broken heart.”
June Steenkamp’s family representative, Rob Matthews, said it would be extremely difficult for her to attend the proceedings considering what she had recently gone through.
“It’s been a real tough road that June has travelled… in March there was a parole hearing and it took all her courage to attend that,” he went on to say.
In South Africa, after completing half of their sentence, offenders are automatically eligible for parole consideration.
The board, which is usually made up of correctional officers and community members, determines whether an offender is still a risk to society.
This takes into account the gravity of the offence as well as Pistorius’s attitude in prison.
Release is frequently subject to terms such as surveillance by authorities and reporting to a community correctional फैसिलिटी।