Former South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius will be paroled ten years after murdering his then-girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The announced parole will take effect on January 5, 2024.

“The Department of Correctional Services confirms the conditional release of Mr. Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius effective January 5, 2024,” authorities said during the day on Friday.

The decision was made after discussion of a special commission, which belongs to the prison near Pretoria, where Pistorius is serving his sentence.

The members of the commission faced the task of “determining the detainee’s suitability for social reintegration or not”, as well as the date of parole in case of a positive conclusion.

In March, the first request for Pistorius’ release was rejected after disputes over the proportion of the sentence the prisoner had already served.

South African law provides that a convicted person can be released on parole after serving half of the sentence.

Oscar Pistorius was convicted at first instance and then several times on appeal, and prison services at the time estimated that he had not served half of his sentence, a version later rejected by South Africa’s Constitutional Court.

On the night of February 13-14, 2013, the South African athlete, now 37, fatally shot his partner, model Riva Steenkamp, ​​29, by firing a bullet through the bathroom door of his ultra-secure residence in Pretoria.

A year before the tragic event, the six-time Paralympic champion, nicknamed the “Blade Runner” because of his carbon prosthetics, became a sporting legend after competing alongside the suitcase athletes in the 400m at the London Olympics for the first time for an athlete with both legs amputated.

In 2014, Oscar Pistorius was sentenced at first instance to five years in prison for manslaughter at the end of a trial that lasted several months and was broadcast live on television.

Following an appeal by prosecutors and a new six-year prison sentence handed down in 2016, the legal saga continued until the South African Supreme Court finally sentenced Pistorius to 13 years and 5 months in prison in November 2017.

It is updated.