Ismail Abdulazeez Mantu ReportingÂ
Former Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison in January, nearly 10 years after murdering his girlfriend.
Recall Pistorius shot Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013 at his home in Pretoria, South Africa, in a killing that shocked the world.
Truth Live News gathered from multiple sources that the former champion was granted parole effectively from 5 January, the Department of Correctional Services said. He will be subject to conditions until his sentence is expired.
Pistorius, now 37, said he fired the gun through a bathroom door, having mistaken Ms Steenkamp for an intruder, claiming he feared for his safety.
The prosecution argued the murder was premeditated and Pistorius shot her after an argument.
Pistorius was initially not found guilty of murder and was instead convicted of culpable homicide (the equivalent of a manslaughter charge in the UK).
He was sentenced to five years in 2014, and was eventually released from prison and placed under house arrest.
A year later, that conviction was overturned when South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal found him guilty of murder.
He was sentenced to six years – which was then increased to 13 years and five months after the sentence was deemed “shockingly too lenient” in an appeal.
The parole board considered his case again today after denying him parole in March.
The decision to give him a second parole hearing came after his lawyer took his case to the Constitutional Court over errors made by the court in calculating when Pistorius would be eligible for parole.
He was initially told he would only be eligible in August 2024, when he was in fact eligible in March.
Granting a second hearing was seen as effectively an admission of the appeal court’s error.