Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius has been granted parole which will take effect on January 5.
The means the South African Paralympic champion will be released more than a decade after he killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a crime that gripped the world.
Pistorius, 37, appeared before a parole board at a correctional centre outside Pretoria where he is currently detained.
It was Pistorius' second shot at parole in less than eight months. He lost a first bid in March, when the board found he had not completed the minimum detention period required to be let out.
Parole conditions
Department of Corrections spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said Pistorius parole will come with conditions, including that he not leave the area of Pretoria where he is set to live without permission from authorities.
Pistorius will also attend a program to deal with his anger issues, Nxumalo said, and will have to perform community service.
Pistorius' parole conditions will be in place for five years, the Department of Corrections said.
“Parole does not mean the end of the sentence. It is still part of the sentence. It only means the inmate will complete the sentence outside a correctional facility,” Nxumalo said.
'Not opposing parole'
Pistorius, who turned 37 this week, has been in jail since late 2014 for the Valentine’s Day 2013 killing of model Reeva Steenkamp, although he was released for a period of house arrest in 2015 while one of the numerous appeals in his case was heard. He was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison.
Pistorius was at the height of his fame and one of the world’s most admired athletes when he killed Steenkamp. He shot her multiple times in the bathroom of his Pretoria villa in the predawn hours with his licensed 9mm pistol.
Steenkamp’s father, Barry Steenkamp, died in September. Her mother, June Steenkamp, did not oppose Pistorius’ parole.
Rob Matthews, a South African man whose 21-year-old daughter was murdered in 2004 and who became a Steenkamp family friend, read out a statement from June Steenkamp outside the prison before the hearing in which she said she was not opposing his parole and didn’t attend the hearing because “I simply cannot muster the energy to face him again at this stage.”
Life in parole
Nevertheless, “I do not believe Oscar’s version that he thought the person in the toilet was a burglar,” June Steenkamp said in the statement. “In fact, I do not know anybody who does. My dearest child screamed for her life. ... I believe he knew it was Reeva."
While out on parole, Pistorius is expected to live at his uncle's luxurious mansion in a wealthy Pretoria suburb, where he stayed during his murder trial.
