South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, who is serving a sentence for murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp in 2013, He was transferred from Pretoria to another prison in the southeast of the country for the procedures prior to a future probation process, which include dialogues with the Steenkamp family.
“The transfer is required due to the need to begin the process of the ‘victim-criminal dialogue’, because the victims reside in Gqeberha (a South African city formerly known as Port Elizabeth),” the South African Department of Prison Services said in a statement on Monday.
“Criminals participate in the ‘victim-criminal dialogue’ as part of their path to rehabilitation, in which they can admit the damage they caused to the victims and to society,” the message added.
The Department of Correctional Services did not specify when exactly the transfer occurred, but stressed that This is not the beginning of the process for parole, but a “preliminary” process before an inmate can be considered a candidate to obtain it.
Likewise, that body indicated that this is an “internal” process and requested that, given the sensitivity of the circumstances, the participants have the right to keep it private.
On the victim’s side, the participants in this dialogue would be Reeva Steenkamp’s parents.
Pistorius, 35, could legally be a candidate for parole as of March 2023, according to a decision issued earlier this year by the South African Supreme Court of Appeals.
This means that the former South African Olympic runner would qualify for the privilege of parole a decade after the murder.
Pistorius is serving a 15-year prison sentence for shooting Steenkamp to death at his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day 2013.
He shot him four times through the closed bathroom door and, during the trial, tried unsuccessfully to defend that he panicked after mistaking Steenkamp for a burglar who had entered the house through the bathroom window.
Initially he was sentenced to six years in prison, as the court considered that extenuating circumstances existed, but, following an appeal by the Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Court of South Africa increased the sentence in November 2017 to fifteen years, which is the minimum contemplated by the South African law in murder cases.
Born with a genetic problem that led his parents to decide to amputate both his legs below the knees when he was 11 months old, Pistorius achieved world fame by running at the 2012 London Olympics on two carbon prostheses.
(with information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com