South Africa justice minister Michael Masutha is seeking legal advice on whether Pistorius' release is allowable under South African law and whether he has the power to intervene, according to The Guardian.
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Pistorius is scheduled for house arrest on Friday, which would complete 10 months in Kgosi Mampuru II prison and finish one-sixth of his five-year sentence on a culpable homicide conviction in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
"I'm confident that by Friday I will be in a position to determine whether legally I have the authority to do anything, whether it would be appropriate or actually necessary by law for me to do anything in relation to what was announced by the Department [of Correctional Services] as the imminent release of Mr. Pistorius by this Friday," the minister told eNews Channel Africa, the Guardian reported.
"I'll tell you what concerns me most is that if we say this is the law, we must be sure that this indeed is the law, because it would be egg on our face if it turns out that actually we've misinterpreted the law. My starting point is upholding the rule of law. That's what the constitution requires, nothing to do with publicity, with the fact that it's a high-profile matter."
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Masutha, however, was responding to a petition from a women's rights group protesting that allowing Pistorius house arrest during women's month in South Africa would undermine the organization's efforts to stop gender violence.
Attorney William Booth did not say whether he would have looked into Pistorius' release without the petition from an umbrella group known as the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa.
The Guardian quoted Booth, who said, "It's pretty standard. The normal position is that someone with this sentence can be released after one-sixth of it, depending on the behavior of the prisoner."
In its petition, the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa proclaimed, "We are shocked about the insensitiveness of the parole board to release Oscar Pistorius during women's month. This decision of the parole board is outrageous and an affront to the aim of women's month."
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