JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius was granted parole on Friday after he was jailed nine years ago for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Here are some facts about Pistorius’ life.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Pistorius was born on November 22, 1986, in Johannesburg.
Born without fibulas, a lower leg bone, he had both legs amputated below the knees before turning one-year-old.
After learning to walk on prosthetic legs, Pistorius became a sportsman in high school. He turned to sprint training in 2003 after suffering a serious knee injury playing rugby.
SPORTS CAREER
Running on carbon fibre prosthetic blades, earning him the nickname “Blade Runner”, Pistorius became a Paralympic gold medallist over 200 metres in Athens in 2004.
In January 2008, Pistorius was banned from running against able-bodied athletes by the sport’s governing body, the IAAF, which deemed that his blades provided an unfair advantage. Four months later the Court for Arbitration for Sport ruled that he was eligible to compete in IAAF-sanctioned events. He capped the year by winning three golds at the Paralympics in Beijing.
Pistorius was selected for South Africa’s London Games team and in August 2012 he became the first double amputee to compete on the track at an Olympic Games, where he reached the 400 metres semi-finals. He also carried the flag for South Africa at the opening ceremony of the London Paralympic Games and won two gold medals.
MURDER TRIAL
Pistorius was arrested and charged with murder after he fired four shots at his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door at his Pretoria home on Feb. 14, 2013.
He was convicted of culpable homicide in September 2014, but was let off the more serious charge of murder. He started his five-year jail sentence in October, but was a year later released to house arrest.
But the Supreme Court of Appeal in December 2015 overturned the earlier ruling and found Pistorius guilty of murder. Pistorius was sent back to jail for six years in July 2016, which was less than half the 15-year minimum term sought by prosecutors.
The Supreme Court eventually more than doubled his sentence to 13 years and 5 months in Nov. 2017, accepting state prosecutors’ argument that the original jail term was “shockingly lenient”.
(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Bhargav Acharya, Editing by William Maclean)
