Oscar Pistorius speaks on a mobile phone in June 2016 during his sentencing hearing for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa.
Alon Skuy/AP
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Alon Skuy/AP
Oscar Pistorius speaks on a mobile phone in June 2016 during his sentencing hearing for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa.
Alon Skuy/AP
PRETORIA, South Africa — Former Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was denied parole on Friday and will face jail time for at least another year and four months after it was ruled he had not served the “minimum period of detention” required to be released after his murder. conviction for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The parole board that heard Pistorius’s application ruled that he could reapply in August 2024, the South African Department of Corrections said in a statement. The board cited a new clarification on Pistorius’s judgment issued by the South African Supreme Court of Appeal three days ago, according to the statement.
The result came as a surprise, but there have been legal disputes over when Pistorius should be eligible for parole due to the series of appeals in his case. He was initially convicted of manslaughter, a charge comparable to manslaughter, in 2014, but the case went through a series of appeals before Pistorius was finally sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison for murder in 2017.
Serious offenders must serve at least half of their sentence to be eligible for parole in South Africa and Pistorius’s lawyers went to court to argue that he was now eligible because he had served the required part in jail since late 2014 after of his manslaughter. conviction.
June Steenkamp, ​​the mother of Reeva Steenkamp, ​​sits inside the correctional service car Thursday at Atteridgeville prison for Oscar Pistorius’s parole hearing in Pretoria, South Africa.
Themba Hadebe/AP
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Themba Hadebe/AP
June Steenkamp, ​​the mother of Reeva Steenkamp, ​​sits inside the correctional service car Thursday at Atteridgeville prison for Oscar Pistorius’s parole hearing in Pretoria, South Africa.
Themba Hadebe/AP
June Steenkamp, ​​the mother of Reeva Steenkamp, ​​attended Pistorius’ hearing on Friday to oppose his parole. Reeva Steenkamp’s parents have said they still don’t believe Pistorius’s account of her daughter’s murder.
Pistorius has long claimed that he killed Steenkamp in the predawn hours of Valentine’s Day 2013 after mistaking her for a dangerous intruder in his home. The Steenkamps said they believe he intentionally killed her after a late-night argument and want her to stay in prison.
