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Oscar Pistorius ‘to be released in August’ as appeal date is set for November Oscar Pistorius ‘to be released in August’ as appeal date is set for November
(about 3 hours later)
South Africa’s supreme court of appeal has set a November date for prosecutors to appeal against Oscar Pistorius’s acquittal on a murder charge for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, with the athlete set to be released on parole “by the end of August”. Prison officials have recommended that Oscar Pistorius, the South African double-amputee Olympic athlete who killed his girlfriend, be released from prison on 21 August for good behaviour after serving just 10 months and be moved to house arrest, the head of correctional services said on Monday.
Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide, similar to manslaughter, and sentenced to five years in prison last year for killing Steenkamp in 2013. Prosecutors appealed, saying the double-amputee Olympic athlete should have been found guilty of murder. The news emerged on the same day the country’s supreme court of appeal announced the prosecution’s appeal against Pistorius’s acquittal on a murder charge for killing Reeva Steenkamp would be heard in November.
The supreme court of appeal registrar Paul Myburgh said on Monday that chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel and defence lawyer Barry Roux have met with the president of the court. Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide for shooting Steenkamp multiple times through a closed toilet door in his home in 2013. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Under South African law, he is eligible to be released under conditions after serving one-sixth of his sentence, which is 10 months in this case.
Meanwhile, a family member has revealed that Pistorius will be released in August having served just 10 months of his sentence. The country’s acting national commissioner of correctional services, Zach Modise, said on Mondaythat a prison committee recommended last week that Pistorius be released from the prison in Pretoria on 21 August, exactly 10 months after he was sentenced and meaning he will have served the minimum amount of jail time his sentence required.
Modise said the committee made the recommendation on the basis of Pistorius’ good behaviour in the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in the capital, Pretoria, where he has been incarcerated since 21 October.
“He’s behaving himself very well,” Modise said. “He hasn’t given us any problems.”
Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said the exact conditions of Pistorius’s house arrest wouldn’t be made public.
The prison’s parole board had not yet made the final decision to release Pistorius, and the world-famous runner must “keep behaving well” to be released, Modise said.
If released, Pistorius would be under strict probation conditions and would be monitored, Modise said. He said authorities would consider allowing him to begin training again.
However, Pistorius will also again face the possibility of a minimum of 15 years in prison if a panel of judges at the supreme court of appeal overturns the original decision in his murder trial and convicts him of murder.
The court has not yet set an exact date for the start of the appeal, court registrar Paul Myburgh said, but it will be this November.
Last year, prosecutors appealed against the decision by trial judge Thokozile Masipa to find Pistorius guilty of the lesser charge, saying he should have been convicted of murder for shooting four times through the toilet cubicle door, killing Steenkamp. In December, Masipa granted prosecutors permission to appeal against her finding at the supreme court of appeal.
Myburgh said chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel and defense lawyer Barry Roux had already met with the president of the court.
Some of the details of the appeal hearing have been ironed out: Prosecutors must submit their court papers outlining their argument by 17 August. Pistorius’s defence team must submit their response by 17 September, Myburgh said.