Olympic runner Pistorius paroled, will be released Jan. 5
Double-amputee Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was granted parole on Friday, more than a decade after shooting his girlfriend through a bathroom door at his home in South Africa in a killing that jolted the world.
He will be released from prison on Jan. 5, but his parole will come with other conditions, Department of Corrections spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said. Pistorius has been incarcerated in the South African capital, Pretoria, for killing Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius won’t be allowed to leave the area of Pretoria where he is set to live without permission from authorities. He will also attend a program to deal with anger issues and another program on violence against women. He will have to perform community service.
“Parole does not mean the end of the sentence. It is still part of the sentence. It only means the inmate will complete the sentence outside a correctional facility,” Nxumalo said. “What will happen is that Mr. Pistorius will be allocated a monitoring official. This official will work with him until his sentence expires.”
Pistorius, who turned 37 this week, has been in jail since late 2014 for the Valentine’s Day 2013 killing of model Steenkamp.
Pistorius was at the height of his fame and one of the world’s most admired athletes when he killed Steenkamp. He shot her multiple times in the bathroom of his Pretoria villa in the predawn hours with his 9mm pistol. Pistorius testified at his murder trial that he killed Steenkamp by mistake when he fired four times through the door thinking she was a dangerous intruder hiding in his bathroom in the middle of the night.
Pistorius killed Steenkamp just months after he had become the first double-amputee to compete at the Olympics. He was a multiple Paralympic sprinter who overcame the amputation of both his legs below the knee as a baby to run on special carbon-fiber blades. He was known as the “Blade Runner.”
ELSEWHERE 1,214th-ranked player takes lead at Joburg
South African golfer Nikhil Rama rose to the top of the leaderboard at the Joburg Open after hitting an 8-under 62 in the second round on Friday at Johannesburg.
Rama, who is ranked No. 1,214, made an eagle and six birdies at Houghton Golf Club in his 10th European tour event. He leads Thriston Lawrence, another South African, by one shot at 13-under 127 total.
Tennis: Alex de Miñaur and Alexei Popyrin put Australia back into the Davis Cup final for a second straight year after winning their singles matches in a 2-0 victory over Finland at Malaga, Spain. Popyrin gave Australia a 1-0 lead in the semifinal match after beating Otto Virtanen 7-6 (5), 6-2. De Miñaur then beat Emil Ruusuvuori 6-4, 6-3.
MLB: Ron Hodges, a catcher who spent his entire 12-season major league career with the Mets, died Friday. He was 74. Selected by the Mets in the second round of the second phase of the January 1972 amateur draft, Hodges finished with a .240 batting average and 19 homers during a career from 1973-84.