“The reason invoked is that the detainee has not completed the minimum period of detention, according to the Supreme Court of Appeal”, that is, the last instance that convicted Pistorius in 2017 after multiple appeals, the statement says. “The request has been rejected” and “will be reviewed in a year,” the lawyer for the victim’s family, Tania Koen, told AFP.
An ad hoc committee met on Friday at Atteridgeville prison, near Pretoria, where the 36-year-old former athlete is serving a sentence of more than 13 years.
Oscar Pistorius “never told the truth”
South African law provides that a person convicted of murder can be released early after half of their sentence has elapsed. The parents of Reeva Steenkamp, the victim, had expressed their opposition to her early release, considering that Oscar Pistorius never told the truth.
“I don’t believe her story,” the visibly distraught mother, June Steenkamp, told reporters who crowded the car in which she arrived at the prison for the commission’s hearing.
The mother ultimately did not have to testify in front of her daughter’s killer because of the commission’s decision, her lawyer Tania Koen said. The victim’s parents are living “a life sentence” since the violent death of their daughter, Koen said. “They miss her every day,” she added. “The whole procedure caused useless trauma for both parties,” she lamented.
“They believe that he should not be released” because “he has not shown remorse and he is not rehabilitated, because if he were, he would have been honest and would have told the true story of what happened that night,” he insisted.
The commission was officially to examine whether “the objective of imprisonment” was met, the prison administration explained. The behavior of the detainee, his physical and mental state, and the risk of recidivism were also examined.
He killed his wife out of “jealousy”
The case dates back ten years. In the early hours of Valentine’s Day, on February 14, 2013, Pistorius fired a rifle through the bathroom door of his bedroom. The 29-year-old model Reeva Steenkamp, who had come to spend the night at her house in Pretoria, was shot four times.
The rich and famous six-time Paralympic champion had become a legend of the sport a year earlier by competing in the 400 meters at the London Olympics, something unprecedented for a double amputee. “Blade Runner,” the nickname for him in reference to his carbon prosthetic cat-like paws, was arrested early this morning. According to him, it is a mistake and he explained that he believed that a thief had managed to break into his residence, under important security measures.
During his trial in the first instance, broadcast live on television for eight months in 2014, Pistorius appeared crying and even vomited when the autopsy report was read. He was sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter.
But the prosecution found the sentence too lenient and appealed to seek a conviction for murder. During the appeal trial, Pistorius appeared before the judges showing his stumps. A defense psychologist then described him as a “broken” man. He was sentenced to six years in prison for murder.
But the prosecution continued to consider the sentence insufficient and in 2017 the Supreme Court of Appeals sentenced him to 13 years and 5 months in prison. In the end, he ended up abandoned by his sponsors and broke.