Double-amputee Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was granted parole Friday, 10 years after shooting his girlfriend through a toilet door at his home in South Africa in a killing that jolted the world. Department of Corrections spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said Pistorius would be released from prison on Jan. 5. 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, reports the AP.
Serious offenders in South Africa must serve at least half of their sentence to be eligible for parole, which Pistorius has done. Steenkamp's father, Barry Steenkamp, died in September. Her mother, June Steenkamp did not oppose Pistorius' parole though she was not convinced he had been rehabilitated. 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 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."
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." Pistorius testified at his murder trial that he killed Steenkamp by mistake, thinking she was a dangerous intruder hiding in his bathroom in the middle of the night when he fired four times through the door with his licensed 9mm pistol. Prosecutors argued that Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and reality TV star, had fled to the toilet cubicle during a late-night argument and Pistorius killed her in a rage. Upon his release, Pistorius is expected to live at his uncle's luxurious mansion in a wealthy Pretoria suburb, where he stayed during his murder trial.
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