Oscar Pistorius to Be Released From Prison After Parole Board Meeting
The Paralympian will be moved to house arrest after nearly a year behind bars.
— -- Oscar Pistorius is to be released from prison next week and moved to house arrest, after the South African parole board decided to free the South African Paralympian from custody and into “correctional supervision.”
"The Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Supervision and Parole Board (CSPB) today, 15 October 2015, approved the placement of offender Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision as from 20 October 2015," according to a statement today from the South African Department of Correctional Services.
"The parole board met in Pretoria for the second time following a directive of the Parole Review Board, which set aside its earlier decision to place Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision because it was prematurely made."
The department added that Pistorius, who killed his girlfriend, will be under correctional supervision as of Tuesday until Oct. 20, 2019.
"The Parole Board has also given the offender his 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," according to the statement, meaning he cannot possess a firearm.
He is expected to live with his uncle in Pretoria, his rep, Anneliese Burgess, told ABC News today.
Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. He was convicted last October of culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter, despite his argument that he mistook her for an intruder in his home.
He was initially approved to be released Aug. 21 after serving 10 months of his five-year manslaughter sentence, a fairly common procedure in South Africa for offenders sentenced to five years or less.
But the justice minister intervened two days before Pistorius was to leave prison and ordered a review on a legal technicality, saying the parole board met two months too early.
The double-amputee runner, 28, received the nickname “Blade Runner” for his prosthetics and participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.