‘Blade Runner’ Pistorius set to be released 11 years after murdering girlfriend
PRETORIA – South African former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius is set to be released on parole on Jan 5, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a crime that shocked a nation long inured to violence against women.
Pistorius – dubbed “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetic legs – shot the 29-year-old model dead through a locked bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
He has repeatedly said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he fired four shots into the bathroom at his Pretoria home, and he launched multiple appeals against his conviction on that basis.
Pistorius, now 37, has spent about eight and a half years in jail, as well as seven months under home arrest before he was sentenced for murder. A parole board in November decided he could be freed after completing more than half his sentence.
A monitoring official, whom Pistorius will have to inform if he seeks job opportunities or moves to a new address, will keep an eye on him until his sentence expires in December 2029.
Pistorius is also required to continue therapy on anger management and attend sessions on gender-based violence as part of his parole conditions, a lawyer for the Steenkamp family said in November.
Local media expect him to live at the home of his uncle Arnold Pistorius in a wealthy Pretoria suburb. – REUTERS
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