Former South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius was released from prison on Friday, discreetly and avoiding the eye of the cameras, and is “now at home”, on parole, almost eleven years after the murder of his partner, Reeva Steenkamp. The 37-year-old former athlete, amputee of both legs, convicted of murder in a case that excited the world and who served more than half of his sentence, left Atteridgeville prison early in the morning, in the suburbs of the capital Pretoria.+
“He has been admitted to the community correctional system and is now at home,” the prison service said in a statement, confirming that his release on parole is now effective. Neither the time nor the logistical details had been communicated beforehand by the authorities who cited “security” reasons. The six-time Paralympic champion is banned from speaking to the media.
In a written statement received by AFP a few minutes before Pistorius’ release, the victim’s mother declared that those close to Reeva Steenkamp were “sentenced for life”. “We, who are still here, are condemned for life,” regretted June Steenkamp. Asking if “justice has been served to Reeva” and if “Oscar has served enough time”, she explained that “there is never justice as your loved one will never come back.”
The Steenkamp family did not formally oppose the ex-champion’s conditional release. But June Steenkamp said she still did not believe “Oscar’s version of the facts” and was convinced that the latter “did not rehabilitate himself” in detention.
Anger management
On the night of February 13 to 14, 2013, Oscar Pistorius killed model Reeva Steenkamp, 29, by shooting four times through the bathroom door of her bedroom, in his ultra-secure house in Pretoria. A year earlier, the athlete had entered the legend by lining up with the able-bodied in the 400 meters of the London Olympic Games, a first for a double amputee. Arrested in the early morning of Valentine’s Day 2013, Pistorius denied having fired in a fit of rage, claiming to have believed in the presence of a burglar. A version that he maintained throughout the legal saga which kept the media in suspense for the following four years.
At the end of his first trial opened in 2014 and broadcast live on television, the runner nicknamed “Blade runner”, in reference to his carbon prostheses, received five years in prison for manslaughter. But the prosecution considers the sentence “scandalously lenient” and calls for it to be reclassified as murder. After several calls and the crude reading of an autopsy report from the victim which caused the accused to vomit, the latter was finally sentenced at the end of 2017 to 13 years and five months in prison for murder.
South African law provides that a convict is eligible for sentence modification once half of his or her sentence has expired. At the end of November, the prison administration announced the early release of Oscar Pistorius. As part of his placement on parole until the end of his sentence in 2029, Oscar Pistorius must follow therapy on anger management and a program on violence against women. He is not allowed to consume alcohol. He must also carry out community service, but must be present at a designated home in a suburb of Pretoria at certain times of the day.