South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, who has spent six years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, has asked the Constitutional Court to declare him eligible for parole.
This comes after his bid for parole was denied in March when it was revealed that he had not served the minimum required sentence to qualify for early release.
Pistorius was found guilty of murder and was given a 13-year jail sentence in 2017 after a long and dramatic trial and several appeals.
He shot and killed Steenkamp through the bathroom door of his high-security home on Valentine’s Day in 2013, claiming that he had mistaken her for an intruder. He believes he qualifies to be released on parole and that “staying longer in prison constitutes an infringement on his fundamental rights”.
However, the country’s top appeals court explained earlier this year that the six-time Paralympic gold medallist still needs to spend another year-an-a-half in jail before he could be considered for parole.
The confusion was brought by the fact that Pistorius’ time in prison had been broken up by appeals and by time he spent under house arrest.
