South Africa suspends Oscar Pistorius release

Johannesburg: South Africa has put the release of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius on hold, saying a decision to free him on Friday after serving only 10 months in prison for killing his girlfriend had been premature.

Justice Minister Michael Masutha said in a surprise statement on Wednesday that the June decision to allow Pistorius to serve out the remainder of his five-year sentence under house arrest had “no legal basis” and was suspended pending a parole board review.

The 28-year-old athlete was convicted in October of culpable homicide — a charge equivalent to man-slaughter — over the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013, but prosecutors have appealed, seeking a murder conviction instead.

Wednesday’s ann-ouncement comes on the very day Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, would have celebrated her 32nd birthday.

“It is apparent... that the decision to release him on 21 August 2015 was made prematurely on 5 June 2015, when the offender was not eligible to be considered at all,” Masutha said in a statement.

“The earlier decision of the CSPB (the Correctional Super-vision and Parole Board) to place the offender under correctional supervision is suspended until the Parole Review Board has decided on the matter,” the statement said.

It was not immediately clear when the review board would meet and justice ministry officials were tight-lipped. During his trial, Pistorius did not dispute that he shot Steenkamp four times through a locked toilet door in his upmarket Pretoria home. But he says he mistook her for an intruder.

Prosecutors however insist that he deliberately killed her after an argument, and this week appealed the culpable homicide verdict.

If they win their case, which is expected to be heard in November, Pistorius could face at least 15 years in jail. He began serving his five-year sentence in October 2014 and will have served a sixth of it by August 21.