Oscar Pistorius, Olympic athlete convicted of murder, is released

Oscar Pistorius, the South African athlete who was hailed as an inspirational figure until he was accused and convicted of murdering his girlfriend, was expected to be released on parole on Friday after seven years in prison.

Mr Pistorius was released on parole in November on the grounds that he had served half of a 15-year prison sentence for murder. In 2013, Mr Pistorius shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, ​​through a closed bathroom door before dawn, killing her.

The trial attracted worldwide headlines and intense interest: Mr. Pistorius, a double amputee, had achieved international fame, first as a Paralympic athlete and then for his participation in the Olympics, and Ms. Steenkamp was a model and reality star. The trial lasted seven months and was televised. The public watched as Mr Pistorius wept in a South African courtroom and heard testimony from nearly 40 witnesses.

This week, South African authorities insisted that Mr Pistorius’ “heightened public profile” would not earn him special treatment. The Department of Correctional Services declined to reveal the time of his release from prison. Authorities also banned Mr Pistorius from speaking to reporters, in line with regulations limiting media interactions.

“Detainees and parolees are never paraded,” the department said in a statement.

Mr Pistorius will be on probation until 2029, when his sentence officially ends. Now 37, he is expected to live with his family and remain in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital. He must also attend rehabilitation programs and cannot consume alcohol or other controlled substances, the department said.

Although the parole decision was within South Africa’s confinement rules, some groups said his freedom had come too soon. Ahead of Mr Pistorius’ release, a gender rights group drawing attention to South Africa’s high levels of violence against women has resurfaced some of the evidence used during his trial against Mr Pistorius. The group Women for Change produced an image of a text message from Ms Steenkamp to Mr Pistorius, which the prosecution used as evidence during the trial.

“I’m afraid of you sometimes, of the way you snap at me,” the message read.

“Oscar Pistorius is a murderer and he belongs behind bars to serve his full sentence,” the group said on social media. Last year, Women for Change also publicly opposed Mr Pistorius’ parole request.

The message on social media was “to remind society of who Oscar was,” said Bulelwa Adonis, a spokeswoman for the group.

Mr Pistorius’ parole followed a difficult court battle that began in 2013, after the shooting in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013. That morning, Mr Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp through a closed bathroom door at his home in upmarket Pretoria. security estate.

Mr Pistorius claimed her death was an accident and that he mistook her for an intruder. Prosecutors argued he killed Ms Steenkamp in a jealous rage after an argument, pointing to her text messages as evidence of a volatile relationship.

Mr Pistorius was initially convicted of manslaughter, but prosecutors appealed and his conviction was upgraded to murder. An appeals court increased his sentence from six to 15 years, the minimum recommended by South African law for unpremeditated murder.

In March, a parole board rejected his bid, saying authorities wrongly attributed him to serving the minimum required detention period. Mr Pistorius’ lawyers took the decision to the Constitutional Court, South Africa’s highest decision-making body, and it ruled in his favour, citing a misinterpretation of when Mr Pistorius’ sentence for murder began .

The Steenkamp family initially opposed his request for parole, believing Mr Pistorius had deliberately murdered their daughter. Last year, Ms Steenkamp’s mother, June Steenkamp, ​​did not oppose Mr Pistorius’ bid, but publicly questioned whether he had really been rehabilitated.

Before his conviction, Mr Pistorius was praised for his dominance as a Paralympic athlete – he was born without fibulae, so doctors amputated his legs before his first birthday – and for his determination to continue competing beyond Paralympic events. Nicknamed the Blade Runner for the carbon fiber prosthetic blades he used, Mr Pistorius also had a string of lucrative endorsements.

At the age of 17, Mr Pistorius had done so won gold medals during the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. The world governing body for track and field, the IAAF, rejected his bid to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but he fought for the opportunity to run and became the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics, winning the 400 meters ran at the 2012 London Games.