LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In the past few hours, South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius has been freed from prison on parole, having served over half his sentence for murdering his girlfriend in 2013. Kate Bartlett reports from Johannesburg.
KATE BARTLETT, BYLINE: Under his parole conditions, it will be a quiet life in the Pretoria suburbs for Oscar Pistorius. Once a gun-toting party boy, he will be barred from drinking alcohol or giving media interviews until the expiration of his sentence in 2029.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: A channel designed for one purpose.
BARTLETT: The televised trial of the Paralympic champion, dubbed Blade Runner for his high-tech prosthetics, gripped South Africa and the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: ...A little bit on the inside there.
BARTLETT: Pistorius had been a hero to many, having overcome extreme adversity. He was born with a congenital condition that meant his legs were amputated below the knee as a baby.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: Pistorius has got a little bit of a lead right now.
BARTLETT: Despite this, he became a sprinter and won multiple gold medals at the Paralympics. He also became the first double amputee to compete against able-bodied runners in track at the Olympics. Pistorius led a glamorous life, often photographed at glitzy events and was open about his love of guns. On Valentine's Day 2013, he shot and killed his 29-year-old girlfriend, law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp. He fired four times through the bathroom door of his Pretoria mansion. The athlete has always claimed he thought she was a burglar, a claim he repeated throughout the trial.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OSCAR PISTORIUS: I flung the door open. I threw it open. And I sat over Reeva, and I cried. I don't know how long I was there for.
BARTLETT: But Steenkamp's family and the prosecution said he'd killed her after an argument. He was ultimately found guilty of murder and sentenced to 13 years in prison. Under South African law, he became eligible for parole last year, having served half his sentence. Following his release, Pistorius, now age 37, will have to attend certain programs identified by the parole board. Those include anger management courses, as well as sessions on gender-based violence, according to Tania Koen, a lawyer for the Steenkamp family.
TANIA KOEN: It is our view that the conditions imposed specifically with regard to gender-based violence courses is an important one, as it sends a clear message that violence against women will not be tolerated.
BARTLETT: South Africa has high rates of violence against women, with nearly a thousand women murdered in the three months between July and September last year alone.
For NPR News, I'm Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg.
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.