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Journalism of Courage
Former South African Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius was released on parole on Friday (January 5) after he was jailed more than nine years ago for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, who was a model and reality television star.
Pistorius, a double amputee, won numerous medals in the Paralympics and qualified for the Olympic Games while wearing prosthetic blades. He was one of only 10 athletes ever to have competed in both competitions.
Here is a look at the case, why he has been given parole and some of the key achievements of Pistorius.
Pistorius was arrested and charged with murder after he fired four shots at Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door at his Pretoria, South Africa, home on February 14, 2013.
The athlete maintained that Steenkamp’s death wasn’t a premeditated murder and it was an accident as he mistook her as an intruder. In his affidavit to the court, Pistorius stated that on the night of February 13, he and Steenkamp got into bed and fell asleep.
“During the early morning hours of 14 February 2013, I woke up, went onto the balcony to bring the fan in and closed the sliding doors, the blinds and the curtains. I heard a noise in the bathroom and realised that someone was in the bathroom.”
He added, “I believed that someone had entered my house. I was too scared to switch a light on.”
Pistorius then picked up his 9mm pistol from underneath the bed. On his way to the bathroom, he told the intruder to leave his home and asked Steenkamp to call the police.
“It was pitch dark in the bedroom and I thought Reeva was in bed… As I did not have my prosthetic legs on and felt extremely vulnerable, I knew I had to protect Reeva and myself… I fired shots at the toilet door and shouted to Reeva to phone the police,” he said.
When Steenkamp didn’t respond, Pistorius returned to the bed and realised she wasn’t there.
“That is when it dawned on me that it could have been Reeva who was in the toilet. I returned to the bathroom calling her name… I rushed back into the bedroom and opened the sliding door exiting onto the balcony and screamed for help.”
The prosecution, however, argued that Pistorius had killed Steenkamp in a jealous rage after an argument, pointing to her text messages as evidence of a volatile relationship. One such text message from Steenkamp to Pistorius read: “I’m scared of you sometimes, of how you snap at me”.
Moreover, the prosecution also argued that one of the neighbours of Pistorius and Steenkamp heard the latter screaming and also heard a call for help.
Pistorius was initially convicted of culpable homicide in September 2014 but was let off the more serious charge of murder. But the Supreme Court of Appeal in December 2015 overturned the earlier ruling and found Pistorius guilty of murder.
The Supreme Court eventually more than doubled his sentence to 13 years and 5 months in November 2017, accepting state prosecutors’ argument that the original jail term was “shockingly lenient”.
According to South Africa’s law, serious offenders are eligible for parole after serving at least half their sentence. As Pistorius has served more than seven years in prison, he has become eligible for getting out on parole.
He is expected to live with his family and must remain in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital. He must also attend rehabilitation programs and isn’t allowed to consume alcohol or any banned substances, according to a report by The New York Times.
Pistorius was born on November 22, 1986, without fibulas, a lower leg bone. He had both legs amputated below the knees before turning one year old.
After learning to walk on prosthetic legs, Pistorius became a sportsman in high school. He turned to sprint training in 2003 after suffering a serious knee injury playing rugby.
Running on carbon fibre prosthetic blades, earning him the nickname “Blade Runner”, Pistorius became a Paralympic gold medallist over 200 metres in Athens in 2004.
In January 2008, the world’s governing body for track and field, the IAAF, rejected his bid to compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, stating that his blades provided an unfair advantage. However, after Pistorius challenged the decision, he was allowed to compete in IAAF-sanctioned events.
He became the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics, running the 400 metres at the 2012 London Games.
(With inputs from Reuters)
