Will it come out, will it not come out? Former South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius, convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp a decade ago, will soon be decided. The Early Release Commission "will consider the case of Oscar Pistorius on Friday, November 24, 2023" in Pretoria, the Department of Corrections said in a statement on Monday.
It will "determine whether or not the inmate is fit for reintegration into society," he said. If approved, the parole date will be set by the same board.
A first application rejected in March
In March, a first request was rejected, after an imbroglio over the proportion of the prison sentence already served by the prisoner. South African law provides that a convict may, after half of his sentence has expired, be released on parole.
Because Pistorius had been convicted at first instance and then several times on appeal, the prison service found that, according to a count at the date of the last conviction, he had not served half of his sentence. But the Constitutional Court contradicted this version, ruling last month that the count should begin on the date of the first time the murder convict was put behind bars.
On the night of February 13-14, 2013, the South African athlete, soon to be 37, killed his partner, model Reeva Steenkamp, 29, by firing a rifle through the bathroom door of her bedroom in her high-security residence in Pretoria. Arrested in the early hours of the morning, he had pleaded misunderstanding, saying he had believed that an intruder had broken into his home.
Six-time Paralympic champion
A year earlier, the six-time Paralympic champion, nicknamed "Blade runner" in reference to his carbon prostheses, had become a sporting legend by lining up with the able-bodied in the 400m at the London Olympics, a first for a double amputee.
Oscar Pistorius was sentenced in 2014 to five years in prison for manslaughter, after a trial that lasted several months and was broadcast live on television. The prosecution had appealed and asked for a reclassification for murder. A new sentence of six years' imprisonment was handed down in 2016, a sentence still considered too lenient by the prosecution.
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 in prison.
