The Pretoria mansion where Oscar Pistorius is reported to have spent his first night under house arrest was surrounded by the media earlyTuesday.
Apart from a lone security guard shooing journalists off the pavement outside, there was no movement in the sprawling house, which remained dark and silent throughout the night.
The home belongs to Pistorius’s uncle, Arnold, and is located in Waterkloof, one of the wealthiest suburbs in the south of Pretoria.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that Pistorius, 28, fired four shots through a locked toilet door at his home in Pretoria in the early hours of 2013’s Valentine’s Day.
The double amputee, who competed in the 2012 Olympic Games as a sprinter, killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in the process, and later said he thought she was a burglar.
He was however found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to five years on October 21, 2014, after a trial which lasted more than seven months and attracted worldwide attention.
On Monday night, Pistorius was released from the Kgosi Mampuru II prison after serving one year of a five-year sentence.
Spokesman for the prison service, Manelisis Wolela, told newsmen in Pretoria: “Oscar Pistorius was released at 7.30pm.
“The local management of the correctional centre concerned took the interests of all parties into account before making the decision to release him.”
On November 3, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal will hold a hearing on whether the verdict against Pistorius should be changed from culpable homicide to murder.
Prosecutors are expected to argue that Judge Thokozile Masipa misinterpreted the law when she found that Pistorius had not deliberately shot Steenkamp.
If found guilty, Pistorius could face a minimum of 15 years in jail.
dpa/NAN.
—