Jailed sprinter Oscar Pistorius is set to be freed on Tuesday after serving just 11 months of his five-year prison sentence.
The Paralympian star’s lawyers successfully argued that he should be released on house arrest after serving a year of his five-year jail sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
Pistorius was initially due to be freed in August, but intervention by the minister of justice led to a series of delays before today’s parole board decision.
However, he still faces an appeal in the Supreme Court next month, which if successful, will upgrade his charge to murder and see him re-jailed for a minimum of 15 years.
A spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services said the parole board ‘approved the placement of offender Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision as from 20 October 2015’.
‘The parole board considered all submissions, including the offender’s profile report, the directives of the Parole Review Board and the submission of the victim’s family.’
Under South African law, an offender sentenced to five years or less in jail can be released after serving one-sixth – in Pistorius’ case 10 months.
The spokeswoman for Barry and June Steenkamp confirmed they had received a call from the parole board notifying them of their decision to released Pistorius.
‘We were not surprised to hear their decision, we had been expecting that,’ she said.
The Steenkamps had expressed their objection to the idea that their daughter’s killer should be freed only ten months after he was jailed, prior to a the announcement in June that Pistorius was due to be moved to ‘correctional supervision’ in August.
‘For our beautiful daughter – for anyone’s life – it’s definitely not long enough,’ Steenkamp’s mother told You Magazine, a South African tabloid.
‘She was robbed of her future, her career, her chance to get married and have a baby.’
Steenkamp would have turned 32 in August this year.
Pistorius’s family have accused officials of bowing to ‘political and media hype’ by denying him parole.
Brian Webber, a lawyer representing Pistorius, said officials would have considered how ‘unfairly’ he had been treated after his release was delayed in August.
