Former Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius is to be freed from jail on parole, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
He shot her multiple times through a bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013, later claiming he mistook her for a burglar at their Pretoria home.
Pistorius, now 37, was sentenced by a South African court in 2016 to serve 13 years and five months in prison.
The parole board has set his release for 5 January 2024.
Once released, Pistorius will be monitored by the authorities until his sentence officially expires “just like all other parolees”, the Department of Correctional Services said on Friday. If he wants to move house or get a job during that time he will have to notify his parole officer.
Pistorius will also have to attend therapy sessions, according to the Steenkamp family’s spokesman.
In a letter read out to the parole board during Friday’s hearing, Steenkamp’s mother said she did not oppose his release but wondered whether Pistorius’ “huge anger issues” were truly dealt with in prison. She added that she would be “concerned for the safety of any woman” who now comes into contact with him.
June Steenkamp chose not to attend the parole hearing at Atteridgeville prison, near Pretoria, saying: “I simply cannot muster the energy to face him again at this stage.”
Her husband and Reeva’s father, Barry, died earlier this year and she said the strain on them both had been immense.
“My dear Barry left this world utterly devastated by the thought that he had failed to protect his daughter… I’ve no doubt that he died of a broken heart,” Steenkamp’s statement read.
Barry Steenkamp had met Oscar Pistorius face-to-face last year as part of the rehabilitation process.
Steemkamp says that while she does not believe her daughter’s killer has shown remorse, she had nonetheless decided to forgive him “long ago, as I knew most certainly that I would not be able to survive if I had to cling to my anger”.
This was Pistorius’ second parole hearing in under a year. (BBC)
