Oscar’s ConCourt bid
|Published
Oscar Pistorius. File photo: Themba Hadebe
“Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius is turning to the Constitutional Court in yet another bid to be released on parole.
The lawyer representing his victim Reeva Steenkamp’s parents, June and Barry, confirmed that she did receive a copy of Pistorius’ Concourt application.
“June and Barry will not oppose his application. We will abide by the decision of the court,” she told the Pretoria News.
The disgraced paralympian was denied parole at the end of March for the Valentine’s Day 2013 killing of Reeva.
He was ultimately sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, of which he has to serve at least half before he is eligible for parole.
There is confusion regarding the actual time Pistorius, 36, has served up to now, and he is asking for the apex court to clear up the matter.
The department of Correctional Service said the reason that parole was denied was that Pistorius had not completed the minimum detention period as ruled by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
This, it said, was clarified in a letter received on March 28.
Acting President of the Supreme Court, Judge Xola Petse, in an email to the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre, said: “It [is] apparent from the judgement of this court, delivered on November 24, 2017, that Oscar Pistorius was sentenced by this court to an effective term of 13 years and five months, taking into account the period of 12 months’ imprisonment and correctional supervision of seven months.
“The order of this court is unqualified, which means that the substituted sentence is effective from November 24, 2017 – the date on which this judgement was delivered.”
But, Pistorius said in his application that when one took into account the time he had served and the law, he has been eligible for parole since March 20 this year.