The BBC reminds that the now 36-year-old Pistorius had both legs amputated as a child, but later he learned not only to move nimbly with prostheses, but also to become an excellent sprinter who won seven Paralympic Games medals. In 2012, he participated in the London Olympics, and although he did not achieve high results, he drew criticism that the spring-like prostheses gave him an unfair advantage over other athletes. Soon, the International Athletics Federation decided that the Paralympians should start separately from the other athletes.
DĀR media wrote at the time that this decision drove Pistorius into depression, he began to use prescription drugs excessively and argued more and more often with his girlfriend, the well-known model in the country, Riva Steenkamp. The tragedy happened on the night of February 14, 2013. Pistorius later testified in court that he woke up to strange noises and thought an intruder had broken into his house in Pretoria. Having noticed that the light was on in the bathroom, he fired four shots from the absolutely legally purchased nine-millimeter pistol through its door. Three bullets hit Steenkamp, who died of her injuries, but no one else was in the house. Pistorius stuck to his version of events until the very end, unable to give a logical answer to a very simple question – how did he not notice that his girlfriend was not around when he got out of bed? Several neighbors have testified that the previous evening the two quarreled and scandalized very loudly and for a long time, which makes Steenkamp’s parents think that their daughter was shot not accidentally, but quite deliberately – out of anger.
Steenkamp’s parents still do not believe that Pistorius should be released, stressing that there is reason to believe that he still has not told the whole truth about the circumstances of the murder. AFP reports that at the meeting of the pardon commission held last week, the mother of the deceased and Pistorius were heard separately in order not to cause unnecessary suffering to the victim’s relatives. However, soon after it became clear that this meeting had no meaning at all, because Pistorius does not yet have the right to a pardon. What is to blame for such a silly misunderstanding remains to be explained, but the BBC points out that DĀR media have widely reported since the beginning of March that the former track and field athlete had a chance to go free, and at that time no official claimed otherwise. The reason for the problem is the multiple revisions and appeals of the case in various court instances, as well as the fact that it is not clear whether to include the time Pistorius spent under house arrest before his conviction. The first instance sentenced him to six years in prison in 2016, but it was changed to 13 years and five months in prison after an appeal by prosecutors a year later. Another appeal followed, already in the Supreme Court, which upheld this sentence, even despite the fact that the laws of the SAO stipulate a minimum 15-year prison sentence for murder. The law also stipulates that a convicted person can apply for a pardon only after serving at least half of the term imposed by the court, and Pistorius’s lawyer, Julian King, is determined to prove that this has happened, AP writes, adding that his protest should be heard by the end of April .
