Oscar Pistorius to be released on parole in August

"Oscar will be released on parole by the end of August," a Pistorious family member who did not want to be named told Reuters. Pistorius started his five year sentence in October last year.

Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years imprisonment for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013.

The Olympic and Paralympic runner was convicted of culpable homicide last year for shooting dead 29-year-old law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp at his home in Pretoria.

Judge Thokozile Masipa - only the second black woman to rise to the bench - stressed the difficulty of arriving at a decision that was "fair and just to society and to the accused", but ordered that Pistorius serve a maximum of five years for the crime.

Pistorius was also sentenced to three years for unlawful discharge of a firearm in a restaurant, with that portion of the sentence suspended for five years.

The six-month trial captivated South Africans and many people around the world who admired Pistorius as a symbol of triumph over physical adversity. With its glamorous victim, tears and tragedy, and Pistorius' fall from grace, it has been endlessly discussed.

It also highlighted the country's endemic violence - in domestic situations in which women suffer abuse from their partners, and also in its high crime rate. The claim that Pistorius feared his home had been invaded struck a chord with some South Africans.