South African former professional sprinter and convicted murderer, Oscar Pistorius has made a new bid for freedom by complaining that the court is ‘infringing’ on his rights amid ‘confusion’ surrounding his eligibility for parole after his latest bid for freedom was denied earlier this year.
The former Paralympian, 36, was jailed for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp a decade ago.
He is now seeking to overturn the decision to deny him parole, arguing the time he has spent behind bars already means he is eligible for an early release.
His lawyer, Julian Knight, said in March that Pistorius was not given credit in his parole application for an extra year and four months he has served in prison following Steenkamp’s 2013 murder.
‘It goes without saying that the confusion is to be determined finally as a matter of relative urgency,’ Pistorius stated in papers filed at the apex court earlier this month according to News 24.
‘Every day that I am detained and prohibited from applying for parole in circumstances that I am already eligible for parole and might be successful to obtain parole constitutes an infringement on my fundamental rights,’ he added.
‘I’m confident that common sense will prevail,’ Knight said.
Pistorius was denied parole in March because he hasn’t served the minimum amount of jail time required, a parole board said, a surprise reasoning that prompted criticism of the Department of Corrections for holding the hearing at all if Pistorius wasn’t eligible.
The parole board ruled that he will only be eligible in August 2024.
Pistorius’ legal team is disputing that and the push to have a new hearing appears set to unleash another round of legal wranglings in a case that has captured the world’s attention for a decade and changed direction dramatically as a result of numerous appeals and overturned decisions.
