Johannesburg - Paralympian Oscar Pistorius spent his first night at home after he was placed under correctional supervision, a day earlier than expected, the Correctional Services Department confirmed in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Department of Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela confirmed the athlete, convicted of culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, was released on Monday night.
“The local management of Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre has confirmed that Oscar Pistorius was placed under correctional supervision (on Monday night),” he said.
“The handling of the actual placement is an operational matter of the local management, and how they handle it is their prerogative.
“They carry it out in the best interest of all parties concerned, the victims, the offender and the Department of Correctional Services.”
A huge media contingent had been expected outside the prison on Tuesday for the scheduled release of the athlete.
Model and law graduate Steenkamp was shot dead through the locked bathroom of Pistorius’s Pretoria home in 2013. He was convicted of culpable homicide.
Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail by Judge Thokozile Masipa on October 21 last year in the High Court in Pretoria.
During the trial, Pistorius testified that he accidentally shot dead Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door at his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day, 2013. He said he thought she was an intruder.
Pistorius was sentenced to five years for culpable homicide, and three years suspended for five years for discharging a firearm at Tasha’s restaurant in Sandton, Johannesburg, in January 2013.
On October 15, Wolela said the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Supervision and Parole Board (CSPB) had approved Pistorius’s placement “under correctional supervision as from 20 October 2015”.
The parole board met in Pretoria for the second time following a directive of the Parole Review Board, which had set aside an earlier decision to place Pistorius under correctional supervision because it was prematurely made.
“The parole board considered all submissions, including the offender’s profile report, the directives of the Parole Review Board and the submission of the victim’s family,” he said at the conclusion of the second sitting.
The Kgosi Mampuru II CSPB said: “Upon careful consideration of the facts placed before the Parole Board as contained in the G326 (Profile Report) submitted by the Case Management Committee in terms of Section 42 (2)/* 79 of the Correctional Services Act of 1998, the Parole Board decided to place Mr Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision as from 2015/10/20 until 2019/10/20.”
Pistorius was also given 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, Wolela said.
However, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein will hear the State’s appeal against the murder acquittal for Pistorius on November 3.
ANA
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