Oscar Pistorius to be freed in four days time.

He has been in prison for just 12 months.

Convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius will leave prison on Tuesday after serving only 12 months of his five-year sentence.

The former Paralympian shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentines Day 2013 and was sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter.

But on Tuesday the 28-year old will leave the gates of his South African prison and will spend the rest of his sentence under what South African law calls “correctional supervision.”

The parole board indicated that Pistorius has been a “good inmate” and qualifies for house arrest.

The parole board at the Kgosi Mampuru II prison said it had approved his placement under correctional supervision for four years starting October 20.

“The parole board considered all submissions, including the offender’s profile report, the directives of the Parole Review Board and the submission of the victim’s family,” the statement said.

“The Parole Board has also given the offender his correctional supervision conditions which include the directives of the Parole Review Board in respect of continued psychotherapy and prohibitions in line with the Fire Arms Control Act Section 103,” it said.

Pistorius was due to be moved to house arrest in August after serving 10 months behind bars, but the South African justice minister, referred the matter back to the parole review board.

The announcement overnight has shocked many. One columnist writing for The Telegraph:

Assuming the status quo remains, and the initial verdict is upheld, Pistorius will gradually begin to piece his life back together. He has said he wants to work with children. There have also been reports he hopes to in some way be able to resume his athletic career. We can certainly expect some form of confessional interview…

And then he will begin dating again. One day we will all wake up to the news Oscar Pistorious has a new woman in his life. “Friends” will explain to the press how he will never forget Reeva. But he felt it was to move on. It was time to let her go.

Then one day, it will all have gone. The terms of his home arrest will finally be lifted. He will be able to come and go from his new home – a gated home, just like the one he was living in on that fateful night – exactly as he pleases. He will be free.

Oscar Pistorius is going home. Reeeva Steenkamp is not.

Others directed their anger at the judge:

Criminal lawyer David Dadic told The Guardian “He’s not ‘out’ on parole … he’s having his sentence converted to a house arrest sentence. He’s now confined to a house for a period. They’ll confine him essentially to what he would be doing in prison but in the confines of his own house.”

On hearing the news a lawyer for Steenkamp’s family said nothing had changed for the victim’s parents June and Barry. “Nothing will bring Reeva back,” she said. “They are not surprised at all by this announcement. They expected this.”

“Reeva Steenkamp’s life clearly weighs less heavily in the judicial balance than Pistorious’ access to freedom. It seems that the excuses that have surrounded him since he killed her are more important than the fact that she is dead. This is a devastating indication of the lack of value placed on women’s lives. Until this changes, we will never progress towards to a culture which values women’s lives enough to make them safer.”

However there is a chance that Pistorius’s release will be short lived.

On 3 November prosecutors will appeal to South Africa’s supreme court to try to secure a murder conviction and a stronger sentence for Pistorius, meaning he could face at least 15 years in jail.

“I think the chances are pretty good that the appeals court will rule in favour of the state and overturn the verdict” Ulrich Roux, a criminal lawyer in Johannesburg told The Guardian

“He is faced with the unusual circumstance that he’s released on house arrest and then the court could find him guilty of murder and he’ll have to return to prison.”