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That decision caused an outcry, with women’s rights groups warning it sent a dangerous message about the value of women’s lives.
Steenkamp’s mother June had urged the parole board to “treat the safety of women as the most important consideration” in its deliberations, underlining that Pistorius has never accepted that he targeted Steenkamp. Steenkamp’s father, Barry, died in September, and June did not attend Friday’s parole hearing, saying that after her husband’s death “I simply cannot muster the energy to face [Pistorius] again”. The killing made him infamous, and a long series of trials and appeals spurred international debate about gender-based violence and justice. I do not believe Oscar’s version that he thought the person in the toilet was a burglar,” she wrote in a victim impact statement. “I do not know anybody who does. My dearest child screamed for her life, loud enough for the neighbours to hear her.
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I do not know what gave rise to his choice to shoot through a closed door four times with hollow-point ammunition when, I believe, he knew it was Reeva.”
She said she was not convinced Pistorius had been rehabilitated but that she would not oppose his release if officials decided otherwise. In the initial 2014 trial, the judge found Pistorius guilty of the lesser crime of culpable homicide – comparable to manslaughter – ruling that there was no evidence he had wanted to kill Steenkamp. He will be released on 5 January after a parole board deemed him fit for social reintegration, South Africa’s correctional services department said on Friday. He has served eight and a half years in prison, plus a further eight months under house arrest.He is expected to live at his uncle’s home in a wealthy Pretoria suburb where he stayed during his murder trial.