The meeting with Reeva Steenkamp’s parents is part of his rehabilitation, the South African prison authorities said on Friday. The 35-year-old South African shot his girlfriend through the closed toilet door at his home in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day 2013.
The below-knee amputee, who was nicknamed “Blade Runner” because of his prostheses, always claimed to have taken the model for a burglar and acted in a panic. In 2015 he was found guilty of murder. Now that he’s halfway through his 13-year sentence, it could be commuted to a suspended sentence.
However, meeting June and Barry Steenkamp does not automatically mean that the former sports star will be released on parole, authorities stressed. The aim of the “victim-perpetrator dialogue” is that the inmates “recognize the damage they have caused their victims and society in general”.
Pistorius was transferred to a prison near the port city of Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in November. Steenkamp’s parents live in the region. He is now back in Atteridgeville prison near the capital, Pretoria.
Source: Nachrichten
