Eight years after he shot dead his girlfriend, Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius is up for parole, but first he must meet with her parents.
Pistorius, a world-famous double-amputee athlete who competed at the 2012 Olympics, has been eligible for parole since July after he was convicted of murder for shooting model Reva Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet door in his home on Valentine's Day 2013.
Corrections department officials scheduled the parole hearing for October but it was called off when a full report on Pistorius' time in prison wasn't available, said Julian Knight, a lawyer for Pistorius. The date for a new hearing has not yet been set, Knight said. The Steenkamps will also be allowed to make recommendations to the parole board, although Koen wouldn't say if they will oppose Pistorius' release.The opinion of victims' families is considered by a parole board when deciding whether to release an offender, but it's not the only criteria.
It was a "huge surprise" for the Steenkamps when corrections services officials contacted them last month to say that Pistorius is eligible for parole, Koen said. They believed he would only be eligible in 2023, she said.The confusion over when he would be eligible emanated from Pistorius' long and protracted murder trial and two subsequent appeals by prosecutors. Pistorius went on trial in 2014 and his case was only finalized in 2018.
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