Nearly eleven years after being guilty of the murder of his partner, Reeva Steenkamp, former South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius was released from prison on the morning of Friday January 5 and placed on parole. “He was admitted to the community corrections system and is now home”declared the prison administration in a press release, confirming that his release on parole is now effective.
The 37-year-old former athlete with both legs amputated, who has served more than half of his sentence, must leave Atteridgeville prison, in the suburbs of the capital, Pretoria. For reasons of ” security “, neither the time nor logistical details were communicated by the authorities. The six-time Paralympic champion is banned from speaking to the media.
“We, who are still here, are condemned to life”, said the victim’s mother, June Steenkamp, in a written statement. Answering the question of whether “justice has[vait] been returned to Reeva » and if “Oscar has[vait] served a sufficient sentence”she considered that“there is no[vait] never justice, to the extent that the loved one will never return”.
The Steenkamp family did not formally oppose the ex-champion’s conditional release. But June Steenkamp said she still didn’t believe “to Oscar’s version of events” and be convinced that the latter “don’t[était] not rehabilitated » in prison.
“I don’t believe his story”
During the night of February 13 to 14, 2013, Oscar Pistorius, in his ultra-secure house in Pretoria, shot 29-year-old model Reeva Steenkamp four times through the bathroom door.
A year earlier, the six-time Paralympic champion had entered sporting legend by lining up with the able-bodied in the 400m event at the London Olympic Games, a first for a double leg amputee.
“Blade Runner”, as he is nicknamed because of his carbon prosthetics, claims to have believed in the presence of an intruder. He was sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter following his first trial in 2014. Judging this verdict to be too lenient, the prosecution requested a reclassification as murder. In 2017, the Supreme Court of Appeal finally sentenced him to more than thirteen years in prison. Abandoned by his sponsors, ruined, the fallen athlete had to sell his house to pay his lawyers.
As part of his request for conditional release, obtained on November 24, Oscar Pistorius met Reeva Steenkamp’s parents in 2023. An obligatory step, which allows, according to the authorities, to ensure that detainees “recognize the harm caused”.