The former Paralympian was denied parole on Friday because he did not yet serve the required half of his sentence for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp.
FILE: Oscar Pistorius holding the hand of a relative as he leaves the High Court in Pretoria, on July 6, 2016 after being sentenced to six years in jail for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Picture: AFP
JOHANNESBURG – A legal expert said Oscar Pistorius’s parole hearing shouldn’t have taken place if he wasn’t eligible yet.
The former Paralympian, who is currently serving a 13 years and five months sentence for the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013, appeared before the Correctional Services and Parole Board on Friday.
After several hours, his application was ultimately refused.
This was on the back of a communique the sentencing court issued earlier in the week to the effect that he did not yet serve half of his sentence, as was required for an offender to be considered for parole.
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Dr Llewleyn Curlewis said it was concerning that the hearing sat in the first place against this backdrop of the communique.
“I think it’s very concerning that they wait until the day of the hearing, at the very late hours of the day, after attending to the evidence of both Oscar and the Steenkamp family, after putting them through all the trauma and anticipation and actually giving them a legitimate expectation of the matter being finalised one way or another, to come there and say but listen, you know what, in actual fact we shouldn’t have entertained this in the first place because you haven’t complied with the first point of departure.”
Curlewis said someone did not do their job properly, and that under these circumstances, the hearing should never have been allowed to take place.
The Department of Correctional Services Department, for its part, stressed that this communique was only issued on Tuesday.
