Oscar Pistorius parole board review set for Sept. 18

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Oscar Pistorius’ parole board review will take place on September 18, meaning the Olympic athlete will have to spend at least another three weeks in jail.

Pistorius’ family said in a statement Thursday that they had taken note of the date but would not comment further.

The double-amputee runner was denied early release last week after serving 10 months of his five-year manslaughter sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. The justice department said then that the decision to release Pistorius to house arrest was taken too early.

The review will take place a day after the deadline for Pistorius’ lawyers to submit papers to the Supreme Court. Those papers will be in response to a separate appeal by prosecutors seeking a murder conviction. Prosecutors want a panel of judges to overturn Pistorius’ culpable homicide, or unintentional killing, conviction and find him guilty of the more serious charge of murder.

That Supreme Court appeal will be heard in November.

The parole review board is made up of a judge, a member of the correctional services department, a state prosecutor, two members of the public and a person regarded as an expert in the correctional system, according to the Department of Correctional Services.

Under South African law, an offender is eligible for release after serving one-sixth of a jail sentence of five years or less — 10 months in Pistorius’ case.

South Africa’s justice minister blocked Pistorius’ release because the parole board approved it in June when it should have waited until last Friday to meet.

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Chutel reported from Johannesburg.