Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee Olympic runner, was given parole on Friday, ten years after shooting his girlfriend through a toilet door at his house in South Africa in a killing that shocked the world.
Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, said Pistorius would be released on January 5.
Pistorius, 37, has been in prison since late 2014 for the Valentine’s Day 2013 murder of model Reeva Steenkamp, though he was released for a period of home arrest in 2015 while one of his several appeals was heard. He was eventually found guilty of murder and sentenced to 13 years and 5 months in jail.
In South Africa, serious offenders must serve at least half of their sentence before being eligible for parole, which Pistorius has done.
When he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius was at the pinnacle of his fame and one of the world’s most admired athletes. He shot her numerous times with his legal 9mm pistol in the toilet of his Pretoria villa in the early morning hours.