[imagesource: Reuters]

In November last year, news broke that Oscar Pistorius was eligible for parole.

It appeared that his time behind bars was drawing to a close, pending a so-called “victim offender dialogue” where he meets with June and Barry Steenkamp.

Surely, in the six months since then, a meeting would have been arranged? Apparently not, with the Steenkamps butting heads with Pistorius and his legal team.

In an effort to move things along, Pistorius’ lawyer, Julian Knight, recently accused the Steenkamps of slowing the process down deliberately in an interview with a UK-based media outlet.

More from The Evening Standard:

[Knight said] his client had been met with “one delay after another”.

“The question can be asked whether this is being done to punish my client, to deliberately frustrate the parole process,” he said.

He went on to claim that his client has a “squeaky clean prison record and meets all the requirements for parole”.

When reached for comment, Tania Koen, the Steenkamp’s lawyer, said that was not the case.

She claims the Steenkamps have tried to arrange a meeting while at the same time questioning whether he is actually eligible for release at all.

Below from The Citizen:

…reports suggested that Pistorius would be eligible for parole in March 2023 after the Supreme Court of Appeal failed to account for “time served” when his charge was upgraded from culpable homicide to murder in 2017.

Koen is reportedly in discussion with the Appeals Court as the Steenkamps believe that an “error in calculation” has been made.

It appears that things are at an impasse of sorts. Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesman for South Africa’s department of correctional services, has previously said that relatives of victims “are under no obligation to commit to face-to-face meetings”.

Pistorius’ name actually popped up in an American court recently. Bryan James was on trial for the murder of his wife, Ashley, in a case that had many similarities to the murder of Reeva Steenkamp.

Ashley was shot with a handgun in the early morning of July 11, 2019, after returning to the bedroom from the bathroom.

Over to Michigan Live:

During a long investigation by the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office, detectives discovered several questionable searches in James’ cell phone leading up to the shooting including him looking up the Oscar Pistorius case…

Police discovered he looked up the Pistorius case on June 3, more than a month before the fatal shooting, as a means to plan out how to act after killing his wife and to avoid making the same mistakes that landed Pistorius in prison, [Washtenaw County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Lou] Danner said.

Bryan James’ attorney maintained Ashley’s death was a tragic accident.

The case remains open after an error caused the judge to declare a mistrial.

[sources:eveningstandard&citizen&michlive]