The release from prison of Paralympic athlete Pistorius, who killed a girl, was called the “wrong signal”

Oscar Pistorius’ parole “sends the wrong message”, a women’s charity says ahead of the controversial South African Paralympian’s release. Women for Change says the release of an athlete who killed his girlfriend highlights gender-based violence in South Africa.

Oscar Pistorius is released from prison on parole on Friday, having served half of his 13-year sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. As The Guardian notes, details about the time and place of his release were kept secret for security reasons, according to the Department of Corrective Services, which says the celebrity is being treated the same as all other prisoners.

“The high public profile surrounding Pistorius does not differentiate him from other prisoners and does not justify his inconsistent treatment,” the statement said. – South Africa has chosen a victim-centred criminal justice system. As a result, prisoners and parolees are never exposed.”

The former Paralympian and Olympic champion will be under correctional supervision until his sentence expires in 2029, writes The Guardian. He is expected to live at a relative’s house in Waterkloof, an upscale suburb of South Africa’s capital Pretoria, and attend gender-based violence and anger management programs. He will not be allowed to drink alcohol and will have to obtain a travel or employment permit, making it unlikely that he will return to the track soon.

Atteridgeville Correctional Centre, where Pistorius spent most of his time behind bars, is normally reserved for non-violent offenders but was thought to be better equipped to handle prisoners with disabilities. He had his own cell with a bathroom and access to a garden for growing food. During his time in prison, he lost physical fitness and grew a beard, according to media reports.

Pistorius’ early release highlighted the wider problem of gender-based violence in South Africa – an issue that her friends and family said was close to Steenkamp’s heart. Bulelwa Adonis, a spokeswoman for the rights group Women for Change, said Pistorius’ early release sent the “wrong message” to potential criminals.

She added that the enormous international attention generated by Pistorius’s trial had done nothing to improve the situation of women in South Africa, who experience one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world. “In any case, we have seen an increase in statistics only since 2013. The situation has only gotten worse,” she said. “We believe that our government, our South African leaders, do not take gender-based violence seriously.”

Between April 2022 and March 2023, 43,037 sexual offenses were reported to South African police. The number of crimes that go unreported is believed to be much higher.

Pistorius was one of the most recognizable names in world sport when he fatally shot Reeva Steenkamp, ​​a paralegal and model, four times through the bathroom door of their Pretoria home in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013. He was a six-time Paralympic gold medal winner and qualified for the Olympics with prosthetics – one of only 10 athletes ever to compete in both events. He rose to national and international fame, winning numerous awards and landing several high-profile endorsement deals (his campaign with Nike featured the unfortunate slogan, “I’m the bullet in the chamber”).

Oscar Pistorius claimed he mistook Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder, but after a lengthy trial that attracted huge international media attention, the judge disagreed. He was initially found guilty of premeditated murder; on appeal, this decision was overturned and he was instead found guilty of murder, a more serious charge with a longer prison sentence.

The decision on parole was made in November last year. June Steenkamp, ​​Reeva’s mother, did not attend the hearing. “I simply cannot muster the strength to meet him again at this stage,” she said in a statement. Although she said she had forgiven Pistorius – “I knew almost immediately that I couldn’t survive if I had to cling to my anger” – she “wasn’t convinced” he had shown enough remorse to be released.

In 2022, Pistorius met with Reeva’s father, Barry Steenkamp, ​​as part of the Victim-Offender Dialogue, a program that allows victims of violent crime or their families to meet with the perpetrators if they wish. Barry Steenkamp, ​​who has since died, said he cut the meeting short because he didn’t get the answers he wanted.