JOHANNESBURG – Former Olympic runner and Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius is up for parole. South Africa’s parole board was meeting on Friday to decide whether Pistorius should be released from prison more than 10 years after he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The board will consider his behavior and disciplinary record in prison, his participation in educational or other training courses during his last decade in prison, and his mental and physical condition to determine whether Pistorius, now 36, still poses a threat to public safety.
Steenkamp’s mother, June, arrived at the parole hearing on Friday, and was asked if she believed Pistorius was remorseful.
“No. Never,” she said. “It’s very difficult to be in the same room as him.”
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Steenkamp’s parents had to speak to the parole board to oppose granting Pistorius early parole.
“We don’t believe his story,” June Steenkamp told reporters as her car pulled into Pretoria’s Atteridgeville Correctional Center on Friday.
The 2014 murder trial had viewers around the world glued to live court broadcasts as prosecutors argued that the elite athlete deliberately shot his girlfriend in the middle of the night through a locked bathroom door.
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Pistorius has always maintained that it was a freak accident and that he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder. He was ultimately convicted of murder after prosecutors successfully appealed a preliminary conviction for felony murder, which is comparable to manslaughter. He was sentenced in 2017 to 13 years and five months in prison, which he has already served for more than a year while the appeals process continues.
Social workers have already visited his uncle Arno Pistorius’ property in Pretoria, where he will serve the remainder of his sentence if granted parole.
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Parole conditions vary in South Africa but may include an electronic tag to monitor his movements and a ban on earning money from media interviews about his imprisonment.
Pistorius was last up for parole in 2021, but his request was denied on a technicality Steenkamp’s family has not been met As required by South African parole rules. That meeting has since taken place, but Steenkamp’s parents remain unconvinced that Pistorius has taken responsibility for his actions.
Steenkamp’s mother indicated earlier Friday that, along with her husband, she would oppose Pistorius’ early release, arguing that if he does not admit that he intentionally killed their daughter, he cannot be considered to have shown remorse.
A year before the murder, Pistorius was a star at the London Olympics, gaining worldwide recognition for becoming the first double amputee to compete against able-bodied sprinters. His mastery of twin carbon-fiber prosthetics earned him the nickname “Blade Runner”.
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