(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 29 - Former South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, sentenced in 2017 to 13 years and 5 months in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013, will soon meet the parents of the murdered girl: an event that could precede a conditional release as an example of "rehabilitative justice".
The South African broadcaster Sabc quotes the lawyer of the Teenkamp family, Tania Koen, according to whom the relatives of the ex-model, killed in Pistorius's home by gunshots fired by the former athlete, "would like to participate in a dialogue with the responsible for the crime". "June (Steenkamp, the girl's mother, ed) has always said that she has forgiven Oscar. However - added Koen - this does not mean that he should not pay for what he did. Barry (the father) is a little more combated, but he will have to express yourself on this in due time. The injury, even if a long time has passed by now, is still very painful. " British tabloid Daily Mail wrote that the Steenkamps recently received a letter from Pistorius that "emotionally upset" them.
In view of the meeting with the girl's family, Pistorius will be transferred to a prison closer to their residence.
Pistorius, now 35 / year old, who as a child had both legs amputated from the knee down and runs on the track with special carbon prostheses that earned him the nickname of Blade Runner, was the first athlete to participate in both the Olympics and the Paralympics.
On the crime, he claimed to have shot because he was scared full night, not knowing that his girlfriend was behind the bathroom door of his house, thinking instead of an intruder, a thief.
The defense's thesis was somehow accepted in the first instance sentence of 2014, which sentenced him to five years for manslaughter.
But the accusation appealed against the sentence considered too mild: in the appeal process, in 2015, the verdict changed and became voluntary murder and the final sentence, imposed in 2017, brought the sentence to be served in prison to 13 years and 5 months.
(HANDLE).