Oscar Pistorius family condemns failure to release him

By BBC News

The refusal to free South African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius from prison on parole "flies in the face" of justice, his family has said.

On Monday, a judge-led panel upheld a decision taken in August to block his transfer to house arrest.

The panel also said Pistorius should undergo psychotherapy, but his family said he was already receiving it.

The 28-year-old was sentenced to five years in prison last year for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa found him guilty of culpable homicide, or manslaughter.

The 28-year-old double amputee had hoped to be freed in August after a parole board ruled that he could serve the rest of his five-year prison sentence under house arrest.

But the panel, led by Judge Lucy Mailula, ruled that Justice Minister Michael Masutha had acted correctly when he prevented the release on the grounds that it had been taken prematurely.

At the time of his intervention, Pistorius had been granted parole only six months into his five-year sentence.

Mr Masutha had argued that the law states that an offender can only be considered for parole after serving one-sixth of his sentence, in this case 10 months.