Pistorius to be released within months
June 9, 2015
The news that Pistorius would soon be released from prison was confirmed in a statement issued by South Africa's prison service on Monday.
"The Correctional Supervision and Parole Board... approved the placement of Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision with effect from 21 August," the statement said. The "correctional supervision" referred to in the statement is a form of house arrest, which has been granted to the 28-year-old double amputee.
Zach Modise, Acting National Commissioner of Correctional Services, confirmed that Pistorius was being released for good behavior.
"He's behaving himself very well, he hasn't given us any problems," Modise told the Associated Press.
Monday's announcement means that Pistorius is set to be released on parole after serving just 10 months of his five-year sentence for killing his girlfriend, television star and model Reeva Steenkamp.
Steenkamp's parents expressed their dismay at the news, in a statement posted online.
"Incarceration of 10 months for taking a life is simply not enough," they said. "We fear that this will not send out the proper message and serve as the deterrent it should."
'Culpable homicide'
Pistorius was found guilty last October of culpable homicide, a charge similar to manslaughter, for shooting Steenkamp through a locked washroom door at his Pretoria home on February 14, 2013.
Prosecutors, however, believe he should have been found guilty of murder, which would have carried a minimum sentence of 15 years behind bars. On Monday it was also announced that they had won their bid to appeal the verdict and that the appeal hearing would begin sometime in November.
Pistorius, who had taken numerous sprinting titles in the Paralympics, made history by competing in the 2012 London Olympics, making him the first double-amputee to compete in both events.
pfd/cmk (AP, AFP, Reuters)