South African authorities have said that former Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on parole in August.
Pistorius will be released after just serving ten months of his five-year sentence for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide last October after a seven month trial and was sentenced to five years in prison. However Pistorius is now eligible for release under South African law which states that non-dangerous prisoners should spend only one-sixth of their custodial sentence behind bars. A spokesperson for the South African prison authority has said Pistorius will spend the remainder of his sentence under “correctional supervision”, which is a form of house arrest.
Pistorius killed Ms Steenkamp (29) a law graduate and former model, on February 14th 2013 when he shot her through a locked toilet door at his Pretoria home. Pistorius has always maintained that he killed Ms Steenkamp by accident, and that he only fired his gun because he thought an intruder was hiding behind the door.
Meanwhile Prosecutors who were strongly pushing for a murder conviction in the original trial have won their appeal against the culpable homicide conviction and will present their case in November in order to obtain a murder conviction. If he is found guilty of murder Pistorius could face a sentence of 15 years in prison.