Oscar Pistorius To Be Released From Prison, Will Serve Rest Of Sentence Under House Arrest

Oscar Pistorius, the South African Paralympian who shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, will be released from custody next week so that he may serve out the remainder of his sentence under “correctional supervision.”

Oscar Pistorius House Arrest

“The Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Supervision and Parole Board (CSPB) today, 15 October 2015, approved the placement of offender Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision as from 20 October 2015,” reads a statement from the South African Department of Correctional Services.

“The parole board met in Pretoria for the second time following a directive of the Parole Review Board, which set aside its earlier decision to place Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision because it was prematurely made.”

The department’s statement also revealed that Pistorius will be under house arrest – termed correctional supervision in South Africa – for four years. It will officially end Oct. 20, 2019. In addition to the house arrest, Pistorius will also have to continue psychotherapy and continue to refrain from using firearms.

“The Parole Board has also given the offender his correctional supervision conditions which include the directives of the Parole Review Board in respect of continued psychotherapy and prohibitions in line with the Fire Arms Control Act Section 103,” according to the statement.

Back in August, Pistorius was unexpectedly denied parole. Days before he was to be released, Justice Minister Michael Masutha said that the initial parole ruling was made without the right legal basis, reported Business Day. Masutha stated that the parole board had handed down its decision prematurely, as at the time, Pistorius had not even served a sixth of his five-year sentence. The law requires that such a decision not be made until that time.

“It is therefore clear that there is no legal basis upon which such a decision was made,” Masutha explained. “One sixth of a five years sentence is 10 months and at the time the decision was made Mr. Pistorius had served only over six months of his sentence.”

In October 2014, Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison for his culpable homicide conviction in the shooting death of Steenkamp, as it was found that the prosecution failed to prove that Pistorius had planned to kill Steenkamp.

Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013. Throughout the highly publicized trial, Pistorius maintained that he had shot through the bathroom door in his Pretoria home, mistaking Steenkamp for an intruder. Part of Pistorius’ defense was that the Olympian felt vulnerable, as he did not have his prosthetic legs on at the time. The prosecution, however, painted Pistorius as a jealous boyfriend with a short fuse who purposely shot to kill Steenkamp.