Only a few weeks remain before former top athlete Oscar Pistorius, who was convicted of manslaughter, is released. He will be allowed to leave the prison gates in the capital Pretoria on January 5 – more than ten years after he murdered his then girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The South African Correctional Service announced after a hearing on Friday that he had been placed on probation as a “first offender with a positive support system”.
On the night of Valentine’s Day 2013, Pistorius killed the then 29-year-old Steenkamp, a model with a law degree, with four shots through the toilet door of his villa. The procedure against the sprinter, who was amputated below both knees, dragged on for years and involved several instances.
The more the court unravels the events of the fatal night, the greater the public’s horror. Pistorius said at the time that he shot several times because he feared an intruder was behind the door. But the evidence was against him.
Pistorius received a prison sentence of 13 years and 5 months. The now 37-year-old has served about half of this. Under South African law, he was automatically entitled to a parole hearing.
The probation period is five years, says Rob Matthews, the lawyer for June Steenkamp, the mother of the slain Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius will undergo a reintegration program within prison until January. The probation conditions include anger management therapy and gender-based violence community service, Matthews said. Pistorius will therefore initially live in his uncle’s house in Pretoria, which he is not allowed to leave without permission from the authorities.
June Steenkamp submitted a written statement for Friday’s hearing, which her lawyer read to media gathered outside the prison. “I don’t believe Oscar’s version where he thought the person in the toilet was a burglar,” it says. She is also not convinced that Pistorius has been rehabilitated because he has never admitted the truth.
Since her daughter was murdered, her life has been “an endless black hole of pain and loneliness” that could never be filled, June Steenkamp wrote. Her husband Barry, who died in September after suffering a stroke shortly after the trial began, died of a broken heart.
Before the crime that changed everything, Pistorius was literally living a golden life and was at the peak of his career. At the 2012 Paralympic Games he won six gold medals on specially made carbon prostheses.
As a child, his legs were amputated below the knees due to a genetic defect. The L-shaped special prostheses with which he sprinted away from his fellow competitors earned him the nickname Blade Runner. It was the story of a man who achieved great things through hard work, despite adverse circumstances.
Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp were considered a dream couple at the time: the successful, ambitious and striking sports star with the beautiful, intelligent girlfriend who publicly stood up for women’s rights. They were part of the country’s elite, celebrated wild parties and drove fast cars.
But what seemed like a fairytale for the South Africans eventually became a nightmare. Celebrated icon Pistorius became a despised murderer. No one knows yet what the fallen star will do with the rest of his life. (sda/dpa)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
