Former South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius, convicted of murdering his partner Reeva Steenkamp a decade ago, will be scheduled for possible parole on Friday after his application is considered.
• Read also: Oscar Pistorius will remain in prison
The parole board “will hear the case of Oscar Pistorius on Friday, November 24, 2023.” in Pretoria, the Department of Prison Services announced in a press release on Monday.
This will “determine whether the prisoner is suitable for reintegration into society,” he continues. If approved, the parole date will be determined by the same commission.
In March, the first request was rejected, after a dispute over the proportion of the prison sentence the prisoner had already served. South African law provides that a convict can, after half of his sentence, be granted parole.
Since Pistorius was convicted in the first instance, then several times in the appeal process, the prison services estimated that, according to the count on the date of the last verdict, he had not even served half of his sentence.
But the Constitutional Court contradicted this version, ruling last month that the countdown should start from the date the convicted murderer was first put behind bars.
On the night of February 13-14, 2013, the South African athlete, soon to be 37 years old, killed his partner, model Reeva Steenkamp (29), by firing a rifle through his bathroom door. room, in his ultra-secure residence in Pretoria.
A year earlier, the six-time Paralympic champion, nicknamed the “Blade runner” in reference to his carbon prosthetics, entered sporting legend by qualifying in the able-bodied 400 meters at the London Olympics, a first for a double amputee.
Arrested in the early hours of the morning, he said it was a misunderstanding, claiming he believed an intruder had broken into his home.
In 2014, Oscar Pistorius was sentenced at first instance to five years in prison for manslaughter, after a months-long trial with live television coverage.
The prosecution appealed and requested a requalification for murder. A new sentence of six years in prison was handed down in 2016, which the prosecution still considers too lenient.
Putting an end to a long legal saga in an extraordinary case, the Supreme Court of Appeal finally sentenced Oscar Pistorius, in November 2017, to 13 years and 5 months.
