Oscar Pistorius will not be released on parole on Friday

ByReuters

Updated 19/08/2015 at 15:55 GMT

South Africa's Oscar Pistorius will not be released on parole this Friday because the decision to release him was made prematurely and without any legal basis, the justice minister said on Wednesday.

South African Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius leaves the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria (Reuters)

Image credit: Reuters

Justice Minister Michael Masutha had said on Tuesday he was seeking legal advice on whether the parole board was right to release Pistorius on house arrest before serving a sixth of his five-year sentence for killing his girlfriend

Pistorius, 29, a former Paralympic gold medallist, was due after his planned release on Friday to spend the balance of his sentence at his uncle's three-storey mansion in a leafy suburb of South Africa's capital Pretoria.

Masutha said he decided to intervene following a petition from a women's organisation.

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The Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa (PWMSA) petitioned the government to block Pistorius's release, saying the 10-month length of his imprisonment was an "insult" to women.

Die Staatsanwaltschaft legt Berufung gegen Oscar Pistorius ein

Image credit: AFP

Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide last year for shooting dead his girlfriend, law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp, 29, on Valentine's Day 2013, through a locked toilet door.

He said the shooting in his upmarket Pretoria home was a tragic mistake as he thought Steenkamp was asleep in bed, not in the small toilet cubicle.

The release of Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated when he was a baby, is in line with South African sentencing guidelines that say non-dangerous prisoners should spend only one-sixth of a custodial sentence behind bars.

The family of athlete Oscar Pistorius who was jailed for killing his girlfriend said they were disappointed the athlete would not be released this Friday after the justice minister suspended his parole.

"We are shocked and disappointed that Oscar won't be home this Friday," a family member who did not want to be named told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court is set to hear an appeal from prosecutors in November who are asking judges to overturn the verdict and convict Pistorius of murder, a crime for which he would face a minimum of 15 years in prison.