Oscar Pistorius could be freed from prison due to blunder in earlier parole bids

20 November 2023 , 23:16

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Oscar Pistorius could secure his release from jail in a new parole hearing (Image: Getty Images Europe)

Oscar Pistorius could soon be freed from jail after prosecutors were discovered to have made major errors in the handling of his parole bids.

The Olympian and double amputee has been in a South African prison since he was found guilty of murdering model girlfriend Reeve Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013. Pistorius, now 36, claimed he thought she was intruder and the shooting was a tragic mistake.

He was convicted of manslaughter, and the verdict was later upgraded to murder, with a sentence of 13 years and five months. Pistorius has since made bids for parole, which have been rejected. His case will be heard again on Friday, where the South Africa’s department of corrections said a board will decide whether he is "suitable or not for social integration".

Pistorius was found guilty of murdering model girlfriend Reeve Steenkamp (left) on Valentine's Day 2013 (AFP/Getty Images)

Serious offenders in South Africa must serve at least half their sentence before they are eligible for parole. The Supreme Court of Appeal eventually ruled in 2017 that Pistorius should serve South Africa's minimum sentence of 15 years for murder, but took into account the year and seven months he had already served for culpable homicide when it delivered his new sentence.

However, the court made an error by not counting another period Pistorius had served while his murder sentence was being appealed, meaning he was in fact eligible for parole in March when he was told at his first hearing that he would only be eligible in August 2024. Pistorius' lawyers took his case to the country's apex Constitutional Court, earning him the new hearing on Friday in recognition of the appeal court's error.

'Blade runner' Pistorius - who competed at London 2012 and rose to fame as the only double amputee to run at the Olympics - is not guaranteed to be granted early release. He was born with a congenital condition that led to his legs being amputated below the knee when he was a baby, but he took up track athletics and won multiple Paralympic titles on his running blades.

At his murder trial, he claimed he shot Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, by mistake with his licensed 9mm pistol because he believed she was a dangerous intruder hiding in his bathroom in the middle of the night. Pistorius will turn 37 on Wednesday and has not been seen for nearly a decade, although there have been occasional glimpses of his time in prison. He sustained an injury in an altercation with another inmate over a prison telephone in 2017. A year earlier, he received treatment for injuries to his wrists, which his family denied were a result of him harming himself and said were instead caused by him falling in his cell.

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Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas