Oscar Pistorius faces parole decision 10 years after conviction

Former South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius, convicted of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp 10 years ago, will be set a possible parole date Friday after his application is reviewed.

The parole board said in a statement Monday it “will be considering the profile of Oscar Pistorius on Friday, 24 November 2023”.

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Pistorius awaits parole decision

It will “decide whether the inmate is suitable or not for social reintegration”, and set a date for release in the event parole is granted, the board added.

In March, Pistorius’s first parole request was rejected after the Department of Correctional Services said he had not completed the minimum detention period required to be let out.

Prisoners in South Africa are automatically eligible for parole consideration after serving half of their sentence.

Pistorius had been thought to have served more than half, having started his term in 2014.

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But after having pursued several appeals of his initial conviction, authorities determined their count from his last conviction, which fell short of half.

The Constitutional Court contradicted this process last month ruling that the count must start from the date of the first instance an inmate was put behind bars.

Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp, a model, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013, firing four times through the bathroom door of his ultra-secure Pretoria house, in a killing that shocked the world.

Known worldwide as the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, Pistorius became the first double amputee to race in the Olympics, competing at the 2012 London Games.

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Steenkamp

Arrested in the early hours back in February 2013, he had pleaded not guilty and denied killing Steenkamp in a rage, saying he mistook her for a burglar.

He was first found guilty of manslaughter in 2014 and handed a five-years’ sentence in a televised trial.

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Public prosecutors appealed the decision calling for a reclassification of murder and more hefty sentencing that saw him convicted in 2016 and sentenced to 13 years in jail in 2017.

© Agence France-Presse