Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was released from prison on parole

South African athlete, former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was released on parole from prison on Friday, January 5. Since 2016, he has been in prison for the unintentional murder of his girlfriend. This is reported by CNN.

In November, the parole commission granted Pistorius’ request on the grounds that he had served half of his 13-year term. After his release, until the official end of his term in 2029, the 37-year-old Pistorius will not be able to leave Pretoria without special permission from the authorities and leaves the house at certain times.

In February 2013, his girlfriend Riva Steenkamp was killed in Pistorius’s house. The athlete claimed that he woke up from the noise and decided that a burglar had broken into the house. He fired his own weapon through the door, but Steenkamp was behind the door. In 2014, the court sentenced Pistorius to five years in prison for manslaughter. Later, the term was increased to six, and then to 13 years of imprisonment.

In a statement released Friday by an attorney for the Steenkamp family, the victim’s mother said, “There can never be justice if your loved one never comes back, and no amount of prison time will bring Riva back.”

• Oscar Pistorius was a star of Paralympic and Olympic sports in the early 2010s. He was born without fibula bones, his legs were amputated in infancy. The boy took his first steps on prostheses and mastered them like his own legs. Pistorius was engaged in running since childhood and in his youth began to win at Paralympic competitions.
• He became the first disabled athlete who won the right to compete on an equal footing with able-bodied athletes. He played for the South African national team at the European Championship in Lignano (Italy), the World Championship in Daegu, Korea, and the 2012 Olympics in London. He was a two-time silver medalist of the 2012 African Championship among healthy athletes.