Pistorius parole board meets over early release

Oscar Pistorius is ‘frail, gaunt and broken’ his friend has revealed as the athlete finds out today whether he will be granted parole ten months into his jail sentence.

He was convicted of culpable homicide over the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. He was sentenced to five years in jail.

Ms Steenkamp, who was 29, died when Pistorius fired four shots through the bathroom door of his home. He admitted the shooting but said he believed his partner was an intruder.

Pistorius, who became the first amputee sprinter to race against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 London Olympics, wants to serve the rest of his time prison term under house arrest.

The justice minister blocked his early release last month after an eleventh hour intervention following an international outcry he had not even served a year in jail. 

But even if his parole is approved today he has further legal battles ahead as prosecutors are still seeking a murder conviction against him, which his lawyers have said ‘he cannot afford’.

It comes as his friend Mike Azzie, who has known Pistorius since he was a boy, said he was ‘living a nightmare’ in prison.

From dailymail.co.uk