South African athlete Oscar Pistorius was released from jail on parole on Friday, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend. Popularly known as 'Blade Runner', for his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs, Pistorius was convicted of killing his girlfriend and model Reeva Steenkamp.
His court case hearings drew worldwide attention nearly a decade ago. In 2013, Pistorius shot his 29-year-old model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp dead through a locked bathroom door on Valentine's Day.
At that time of firing four shots into the bathroom, he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, a claim Pistorius has made multiple times during court hearings. He also launched multiple appeals against his conviction on that basis.
"The Department of Correctional Services (is) able to confirm that Oscar Pistorius is a parolee, effectively from 5 January 2024. He was admitted into the system of Community Corrections and is now at home," the country's prisons department said in a statement.
Till now he has served eight and a half years of jail sentence along with seven months of under-home arrest before he was sentenced for murder. In November, a parole board decided to grant him bail after he completed more than half of his sentence.
In a statement shared by the Steenkamp family lawyer on Friday, Reeva's mother June said: "There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back."
"We, who remain behind, are the ones serving a life sentence," June Steenkamp said, adding her only desire was to be allowed to live in peace after Pistorius' release on parole.
As per the order by the parole board, a monitoring official will keep an eye on Pistorius until his sentence expires in December 2029. He is also required to inform the authorities in case he seeks job opportunities or moves to a new address.
As part of his mandatory parole conditions, he is also ordered to continue his anger management therapy and attend sessions on gender-based violence.
