The Paralympic champion convicted of murdering his girlfriend is leaving prison on parole.
Before his shocking arrest and conviction for murdering his model girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius was South Africa’s golden boy — and an inspiration to many around the world.
Pistorius, who had his lower legs amputated as a baby, had become an Olympic sprinter whose high-tech prosthetics earned him the nickname « Blade Runner. »
Now the 37-year-old athlete is back in the spotlight: getting released from prison on parole on Friday.
Pistorius shot Reeva Steenkamp through the locked bathroom door of his mansion in the South African city of Pretoria on Valentine’s Day 2013, killing her.
He has always maintained he was acting in self-defense, saying he mistook her for a home intruder in a country with high crime.
The Steenkamp family and prosecution, however, painted a portrait of a macho and jealous man, who killed his girlfriend in cold blood during an argument.
After a lengthy televised trial that gripped the globe, and appeals and much legal wrangling, he was ultimately found guilty of murder and sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison.
On Friday he walks out of the Pretoria prison, after serving half of his sentence, toward an uncertain future.
