Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius, accused of the homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, arriving at a court docket in Pretoria, South Africa, for a listening to in July 2016. The athlete will likely be launched for parole in January.

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Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius, accused of the homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, arriving at a court docket in Pretoria, South Africa, for a listening to in July 2016. The athlete will likely be launched for parole in January.

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Oscar Pistorius, a South African Paralympian, is ready to be launched from jail on parole almost 11 years after fatally taking pictures his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

A parole board discovered Friday that Pistorius, 37, had accomplished the minimal detention requirement — half of his 13-year sentence — to make him parole-eligible below South African legislation.

His launch date is ready for Jan. 5, 2024.

A double-amputee since infancy, Pistorius was as soon as one of many world’s most admired runners, often called the “Blade Runner” for the carbon-fiber prosthetics he used to compete on world phases together with the 2012 London Olympics.

He was on the peak of his recognition when he shot Steenkamp 4 occasions via his house’s toilet door on Valentine’s Day 2013.

During a trial that garnered worldwide headlines, Pistorius testified that he’d mistaken the 29-year-old mannequin and paralegal for a burglar. Prosecutors argued that she’d fled to the toilet throughout a late-night argument and that Pistorius had a penchant for angry confrontations involving guns.

Pistorius was initially convicted of culpable homicide, a cost akin to manslaughter. But prosecutors efficiently overturned the conviction for a better cost of homicide. They appealed once more when his homicide conviction sparked solely a six-year sentence.

Pistorius was ultimately sentenced to 13 years and 5 months in 2016 and has been imprisoned ever since.

The athlete made a parole bid in March, however was denied, with the board saying then that he’d failed to finish the minimal detention interval. A court docket later dominated that was a mistaken calculation, resulting in Friday’s listening to on the Atteridgeville Correctional Center simply outdoors of Pretoria.

The parole board had assessed Pistorius’s general situation and located he had a “positive support system,” in keeping with a statement from South Africa’s Correctional Services Department.

A sufferer’s affect assertion from June Steenkamp, Reeva’s mom, was one other issue within the resolution, authorities said at a press conference following the listening to.

June Steenkamp did not straight oppose Pistorious’ launch however questioned whether or not his “temper and abusive behavior towards women” have been correctly rehabilitated and expressed her concern for the security of different girls, in keeping with a statement read by a representative for the family.

Pistorius’s parole will include 5 years of circumstances, together with that he attend an anger administration course and never go away the area of Pretoria with out permission from authorities, in keeping with a report from the Associated Press that cites a Department of Corrections spokesperson.

Those circumstances left the sufferer’s mom “satisfied with the conditions imposed by the parole board because it means that they paid attention to what she was saying,” lawyer Tania Koen advised NPR. “She sees this as a victory for victim participation.”

NPR’s Kate Bartlett to this report.