South African Olympic sprinter, Oscar Pistorius, might be freed from prison on parole in August, 2015 after 10 months in jail for culpable homicide for killing his 29-year-old model and law graduate girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
The development was made known by a family member on Monday, June 8, 2015.
Pistorius is currently serving a five-year prison sentence after being convicted in October, following a seven-month trial.
A Pistorius family member who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “Oscar will be released on parole by the end of August.”
Officials at South Africa’s department of correctional services were not immediately available for comment.
The release of Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated when he was a baby, was largely expected because he was sentenced under South African law to serve a short period of time in jail, or just one-sixth of the sentence.
Pistorius is being held in South Africa’s capital at the Pretoria Central Prison, once the execution site for opponents of South Africa’s racist, white-minority government.
His slain girlfriend died almost immediately on February 14, 2013 when Pistorius shot her through a locked toilet door at his luxury Pretoria home.
Prosecutors had pushed for a murder conviction and won their bid to appeal the culpable homicide conviction.
They will seek a murder conviction when their case is heard in November, 2015 and this could land the track star a prison sentence of at least 15 years if he is convicted of murder.
However, Pistorious maintained his stance that he fired the shot mistakenly when he felt an intruder was hiding behind the door.
