“He has not shown remorse, he has not been rehabilitated,” the parents of Pistorius’ girlfriend oppose his conditional release

The model’s parents Reeva Steenkampthe girlfriend of a South African athlete Oscar Pistorius and for whose murder he is serving a prison sentence in 2013, oppose his request for parole, his lawyer Tania Koen said today. “It’s a very traumatic experience (for parents). As you can imagine, it’s painful. I have to see Oscar Pistorius again this morning,” Koen told reporters before the start of a hearing before the board, which will decide whether to grant parole.

“He is the killer of his daughter. I don’t think he should be released. I feel like you haven’t shown any remorse. He has not been rehabilitated because if he had, he would have confessed and told the true story of what happened that night,” said the lawyer.

Koen spoke outside the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Center in Pretoria, where he is The hearing is being held today behind closed doors., in which Steenkamp’s mother, June Steenkamp, ​​will give written and oral statements. On the same page, the mother herself said she was “very nervous” ahead of the hearing and announced that it would be “very difficult to be in the same room” with Pistorius.

When asked by a reporter if she refused parole for the athlete, June Steenkamp replied: “Yes, I don’t believe his story.” The lawyer added that the parents “are still grieving” and that although “ten years sounds like a long time (…), the time was not worth it. They miss (their daughter) every day.”

The committee – which includes representatives from the prison service, police and civilians – will decide whether the Paralympian is eligible for a suspended sentence after serving half of his fifteen-year sentence from prison.

Last year, Pistorius applied to the High Court in Pretoria to compel prison officials to hold a parole hearing, claiming he had served more than half his sentence.

Under South African law, offenders who serve half their sentences are eligible for parole, a milestone Pistorius said he had achieved. The athlete claimed that he did everything to rehabilitate himself and showed complete remorse, according to the statement sent to the court.

After a trial that attracted global media attention, Pistorius was initially sentenced in October 2014 to five years in prison for culpable homicide when Judge Thokozile Masipa found mitigating circumstances, although the prosecution appealed the verdict.

In November 2015, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the athlete’s manslaughter conviction and found him guilty of murderremanding the case to the trial court for resentencing.

In July 2016, Judge Masipa sentenced Pistorius to six years in prison for murder. However, after another appeal by the Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Court of Appeal increased the sentence to fifteen years in November 2017, the minimum provided by South African law in cases of murder except in exceptional situations.

In practice, that sentence meant thirteen years and five months in prison, not including the time that Pistorius – who spent some time on bail and under house arrest – had already spent in prison. Last July, the Department of Prison Services confirmed that a meeting had taken place between Pistorius and Steenkamp’s parents the previous month. The meeting was part of the athlete’s rehabilitation, a condition for applying for a suspended sentence.

Crime on Valentine’s Day

Pistorius is serving time for shooting Steenkamp to death at his home in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day 2013, when he was at the height of his fame and fortune in his sporting career. LHe killed himself four times through the closed bathroom door. and during the trial he unsuccessfully tried to defend that he panicked when he mistook Steenkamp for a burglar who would enter the house through the bathroom window.

Born with a genetic problem that forced his parents to amputate both legs below the knee when he was 11 months old, Pistorius gained world fame by running at the London OlympicsIn 2012, on two carbon prostheses.