After serving just 10 months of a five-year prison sentence Oscar Pistorius will be released from a South African jail next Saturday.
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Even though he was sentenced to 5 years, the early release has been granted after Oscar had been “behaving himself very well”.
The paralympian shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on the night of Valentine’s Day in 2013, shooting four times with a large caliber weapon on the door of the bathroom where she was.
However, he could still face a murder trial because his case is now with the Supreme Court and there will be an appeal hearing in November.
If his conviction is upgraded to murder, this would result in a minimum 15 year prison sentence.
Prosecutors are arguing that Pistorius should have been convicted of murder, challenging last year’s ruling by Justice Thokozile Masipa as being too lenient.
Will he be able to compete as an athlete?
From strict monitoring of his movements by the Department of Correctional Services to media invasion of his privacy and trying to regain society’s acceptance, the road ahead for Pistorius is set to be anything but a walk in the park.
Provided he commits no further crimes to trigger his additional three-year suspended sentence, and the state’s appeal against his sentence fails, Pistorius will have served his full punishment by the time the 2020 Olympics comes around in Tokyo.
According to The Independent, the late Steenkamp’s parents protested the early release, saying in a statement “incarceration of 10 months for taking a life is simply not enough”.
They said: “We do not seek to avenge her death and we do not want Mr Pistorius to suffer; that will not bring her back to us”.
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A source on the Pistorius legal team said he has been told his release date will either be August 21, 22 or 23. If released some suggest it sends the wrong message to others since Oscar Pistorius is considered a role model.
