20 October 2015•Update: 24 October 2015
PRETORIA, South Africa
The family of Oscar Pistorius has said they will support the infamous paralympian to adhere to all his parole conditions as he serves the remaining four years of his conviction at home.
“It is very important for the family to emphasize that his sentence has not been reduced but he is entering a second phrase,” family spokeswoman Annelise Burgess said in a short statement Tuesday read out to dozens of journalists waiting outside the Pistorius family home in the South African city of Pretoria.
She also did not reveal the current health condition of Pistorius, who stayed in jail since October last year.
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail in 2014 for killing his girlfriend Reeva Stenkamp. He was released last night from the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria and placed under house arrest at his uncle’s posh Pretoria home.
His parole conditions prohibit him from going out at night or carrying a firearm. He is also required to continue receiving psychotherapy, which he has been getting since he shot dead his girlfriend two years ago.
There was a lot of media attention during the trial of Pistorius last year and it seems prison authorities released him a day earlier on Monday to avoid a repeat of the media hype.
Several journalists had planned to camp outside the Kgosi Mampuru II correctional facility on Monday evening only to be told he had been released hours ago.
The 28-year-old double amputee athlete was convicted last year of shooting and killing his girlfriend at his Pretoria home on Feb. 14, 2013.
Pistorius fired four shots through the closed door of his bathroom, which instantly killed Stenkamp, whom he said he mistook for an intruder.
According to South African law, those convicted under the specific section of the country’s Criminal Procedures Act — as Pistorius was — are entitled to be released from prison after serving out one-sixth of their jail term.
The state will appeal Pistorius’s manslaughter conviction next month as it seeks a murder conviction.
Popularly known as “Blade Runner”, Pistorius was born without fibulas in both of his legs. Before completing his first year, he had to have both his lower limbs amputated.
