Famed killer goes to nice big house

After less than a year in a South African prison, Oscar Pistorius gets to serve time in his uncle’s mansion.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, convicted of killing his girlfriend, served just under a year in prison — avoiding the worst of South Africa’s prison system, notorious for its drugs, violence, gangs and rape.

After spending the first part of his five-year sentence in the protected environment of a single cell in a hospital wing because of his disability, the double amputee will serve the rest at his uncle Arnold Pistorius’ threestory mansion, with its gym, pool and dozen bedrooms, as well as a sweeping manicured garden, according to South African news media.

Last year, Pistorius was acquitted of murder after fatally shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in 2013, when he fired four high-powered bullets into the toilet cubicle where she had gone. The court accepted his claim that he believed she was an intruder. But he was convicted of culpable homicide — similar to manslaughter — when the court found he was grossly negligent and reckless in the shooting.

Officials said Pistorius’ early release late Monday didn’t amount to special treatment but was in line with South African correctional policies, which say offenders who aren’t dangerous are eligible for release after serving a sixth of their sentence.

But critics complained that his jail conditions and early release were in stark contrast to the treatment of another famous South African, hip-hop artist Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye, who has been behind bars for nearly three years after being sentenced to an eightyear term on the same charge.

Maarohanye was initially convicted of murder after he and a friend drag-raced their cars through Soweto in 2010 and hit a group of schoolchildren, killing four of them. That conviction was overturned a year ago, and instead he was found guilty of culpable homicide.

Some South Africans expressed anger on Twitter that Pistorius, who is white, had been released while Maarohanye, who is black, remains in jail. Pistorius, who was due for release Tuesday after a parole board decision last week, was instead let out earlier in an apparent effort to avoid a media scrum.

A Pistorius family spokeswoman, Anneliese Burgess, read a brief statement Tuesday outside Arnold Pistorius’ home in Pretoria’s upscale Waterkloof neighborhood: “It is very important for the family to emphasize that Oscar’s sentence hasn’t been shortened or reduced. He’s simply entering the next phase of his sentence now. He will serve this under the strict conditions that govern correctional supervision.”

Steenkamp’s family had opposed Pistorius’ release, arguing that his crime deserved more time behind bars. However, the family’s lawyer, Tania Koen, told South African radio that the precise timing of the release was irrelevant to Steenkamp’s parents, Barry and June.

The athlete still faces the possibility of more prison time, with prosecutors due to appeal his acquittal on murder charges.