Former Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison in January, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend.
Pistorius shot Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013 at his home in Pretoria, South Africa.
He said he fired his gun through a bathroom door after mistaking her for an intruder in the early hours of the morning.
The 37-year-old has been granted parole from 5 January, said South Africa’s department of correctional services.
The parole will last until 5 December 2029 and he will be subject to conditions until it ends.
He won’t be able to leave his area of Pretoria without permission, he must attend an anger management programme, and will do community service.
“Parole does not mean the end of the sentence. It is still part of the sentence,” said prisons’ spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo.
“It only means the inmate will complete the sentence outside a correctional facility.”
Ms Steenkamp’s mother reacted to the parole by insisting that Pistorius intentionally killed her daughter.
“My dearest child screamed for her life… I believe he knew it was Reeva,” she said in a statement.
The former athlete is expected to stay is spend parole at his uncle’s mansion in a wealthy suburb – the same place he stayed during the trial.
That trial was televised in a blaze of publicity – and made headlines around the world.
The prosecution argued the killing was premeditated and that he shot his model girlfriend after she fled to the toilet following a row.
He was initially not found guilty of murder and instead convicted of culpable homicide (the equivalent of manslaughter).
He was sentenced to five years in 2014 and eventually released to house arrest.
A year later, the conviction was overturned when the supreme court of appeal found him guilty of murder.
He was sentenced to six years – which was then increased to 13 years and five months after it was deemed “shockingly too lenient”.
The parole board considered his case again on Friday after denying him parole in March.
Ms Steenkamp’s mother, June, had a statement read out by a family friend outside the prison.
Pistorius with his model girlfriend in November 2012
She said she wasn’t opposing the parole and didn’t attend the hearing as “I simply cannot muster the energy to face him again at this stage.”
“I do not believe Oscar’s version that he thought the person in the toilet was a burglar,” June Steenkamp added in her statement.
“In fact, I do not know anybody who does. My dearest child screamed for her life… I believe he knew it was Reeva.”
Her husband, Barry Steenkamp, who attended the original trial alongside her, died in September aged 80.
Pistorius met with him inside jail in 2022 as part of a restorative justice programme that brings offenders and victims together.
Global star to murderer
The decision for a second parole hearing came after his lawyer took his case to the constitutional court over errors in calculating when Pistorius would be eligible for parole.
He was initially told he would only be eligible in August 2024, when he was in fact eligible in March.
During his trial Pistorius demonstrated how he walks without his prosthetics
Granting a second hearing was seen as effectively an admission of the court’s error.
Serious offenders are eligible for parole in South Africa after serving at least half their sentence.
Pistorius was born in South Africa in 1986. At 11 months old, both his legs were amputated below the knee because of a congenital defect.
He went on to compete at the Paralympics and became the first double amputee to also compete in the Olympics.
Known as the Blade Runner because of his prosthetic blades, Pistorius established himself as an internationally recognised star and the most famous Paralympic athlete.
