Pretoria (Reuters)
The South African Department of Correctional Services said that it had released South African amputee runner Oscar Pistorius on conditional parole, nearly 11 years after the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, and that he is now at home.
Pistorius previously competed in the Paralympics, winning two gold medals.
Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, a model and law student, on Valentine's Day in 2013, and was sentenced to prison in 2014, although he repeatedly denied intentionally killing Steenkamp.
After the crime that shocked his country, Pistorius, 37 years old, famous for his prosthetic legs made of carbon fiber, turned from a famous champion of the Games for the Disabled into a murder convict.
He was initially sentenced to five years in prison in October 2014 for premeditated murder by the Supreme Court.
But the Supreme Court of Appeal convicted him in late 2015 on the more serious charge of murder after prosecutors appealed.
His total sentence was increased to six years in July 2016, less than half the minimum sentence of 15 years requested by the prosecution authorities.
In November 2017, the Supreme Court doubled his total sentence to 13 years and five months, saying the six-year sentence was “shockingly lenient.”
After agreeing to parole, under the so-called restorative justice program in South Africa, the Department of Correctional Services said last November that Pistorius will complete the remainder of his sentence in the community corrections system, and will be subject to supervision, in accordance with the conditions of parole until the end of his sentence.
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