Pistorius parole suffers setback

Prompted by a petition from the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa, the country's Justice Minister - Michael Masutha has ordered a review and suspension of Oscar Pistorius' pending parole.

The Progressive Women's Movement argued that it would be insensitive for authorities to transfer Pistorius in August, which is Women's Month in South Africa.

Pistorius was expected to be released at the end of this week after serving 10 months of a five-year sentence for killing his 29-year old model and law graduate girlfriend - Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013. The parole would have meant a transfer from prison to house arrest.

The Pistorius family expressed disappointment that the athlete would not be released this weekend.

Masutha said in a statement that the parole board had decided to release Pistorius on parole even before the athlete had served a sixth of his sentence, as required by law.

Under South Africa's Correctional Services Act, Pistorius must serve at least one-sixth of his sentence - in this case, 10 months - "before being considered for placement" to house arrest.

Friday is 10 months to the day after Pistorius was sentenced, and the prison parole board, when it announced its decision in June, believed Pistorius would therefore be eligible to transfer at that moment.

But Masutha said that according to his reading of the law, the board shouldn't have even considered the transfer until the 10-month mark.

"It is therefore clear that there is no legal basis upon which such a decision was made ... one sixth of a five years sentence is 10 months and at the time the decision was made Mr. Pistorius had served only over six months of his sentence," Masutha said.

"It is apparent therefore that the decision to release him on 21 August 2015 was made prematurely on 5 June 2015 when the offender was not eligible to be considered at all," the statement added.

Pistorius had earlier admitted killing Steenkamp, by firing four shots through the locked door of a toilet cubicle, saying he believed an intruder was hiding behind it.

Judge Thokozile Masipa sentencing last October, said that the Prosecution failed to convince her of Pistorius' intent to kill when he fired. She found Pistorius to be not guilty of murder, but guilty of culpable homicide in Steenkamp's death. In South Africa, culpable homicide means a person is judged to have killed someone unintentionally but unlawfully.

Judge Masipa said it was clear that his actions were "negligent" and he had "acted too hastily" and used "excessive force" the night Steenkamp died.

"The State clearly has not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of premeditated murder. There are just not enough facts to support such a finding," she said.

In her verdict, Masipa said it was irrelevant that the person behind the door turned out to be Steenkamp, not an intruder. Rather, "the starting point is however, once more, whether the accused had the intention to kill the person behind the door," she said.

Masipa also ruled out dolus eventualis - that he could have foreseen that his actions would kill his girlfriend.

"Clearly he did not subjectively foresee this as a possibility that he would kill the person behind the door, let alone the deceased as he thought she was in the bedroom," she said.

Before this, she said Pistorius knew the difference "between right and wrong" on the night he shot Steenkamp, and the athlete took a "conscious decision" to get a gun and head to the bathroom, where his girlfriend was inside.

"This court is satisfied that at the relevant time, the accused could distinguish between right and wrong, and that he could act in accordance with that distinction. It is also clear that the defence of non-pathological insanity has no foundation," she said.

The Judge also questioned the reliability of witnesses who heard screaming and gunshots on the night Pistorius shot dead Steenkamp. Witnesses who say they heard the incident may have "got their facts wrong", she noted in her verdict.

She said Steenkamp’s “respiratory functions would have been comprised substantially” after being shot, suggesting she would have been unable to shout or scream, “at least not in the manner described by those witnesses who are adamant they heard her scream repeatedly".

Prosecutors want the verdict of culpable homicide, equivalent to manslaughter, raised to murder because they argue Pistorius must have known when he fired that the person behind the door could be killed. The Appeal is due to be heard in November.

Pistorius, whose legs were amputated before his first birthday, was famed for his track career. Running on prosthetic blades, he won gold medals at the 2004 and 2008 Paralympics before competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where he ran in the 400-meter race and the 4x400-meter relay.