Former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius taken to medical facility in South Africa
Pistorius was taken to a medical facility for a checkup, officials said.
— -- South African Paralympian and convicted killer Oscar Pistorius was hospitalized Thursday morning, officials said.
Logan Maistry, a spokesperson for South Africa's Department of Correctional Services, told ABC News that Pistorius was taken to a medical facility for a checkup but declined to provide further details.
Another spokesperson for the correctional services department, Singabaku Nxumalo, told ABC News that Pistorius will spend the night in the hospital for observation. Although Nxumalo could not give details on Pistorius' condition, he denied media reports of a suicide attempt or a heart attack.
Pistorius is serving a six-year prison sentence for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day in 2013.
The world-famous Paralympic athlete was found guilty of culpable homicide by the High Court of South Africa in September 2014. Judge Thokozile Masipa sentenced Pistorius to five years behind bars after ruling that he acted negligently when he shot Steenkamp through a bathroom door in his Pretoria home. Pistorius had said that he thought she was an intruder and that he feared for his life.
Pistorius spent a year in prison in Pretoria before he was granted parole and released to house arrest in October 2015.
But South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the verdict in December 2015 and convicted Pistorius of murder, ruling that he should have known he might kill someone when firing four shots into the bathroom door. He was sentenced to six years in prison in July 2016 and has been behind bars since.
Pistorius' appeal to overturn the upgraded murder conviction was denied.
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