Former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius was released from prison on Friday, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
South Africa's correctional services department confirmed he had been released and is now at home.
It is understood he was released from the Atteridgeville Correctional Center in the South African capital, Pretoria, in the early hours.
Pistorius - dubbed “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetic legs - shot 29-year-old model Steenkamp dead through a locked bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
He has repeatedly said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he fired four shots into the bathroom at his Pretoria home, and he launched multiple appeals against his conviction on that basis.
Pistorius, now 37, has spent about eight and a half years in jail as well as seven months under home arrest before he was sentenced for murder. A parole board in November decided he could be freed after completing more than half his sentence.
He will live under strict conditions until his sentence expires in 2029.
He will be confined to his home for certain hours of the day and he is banned from drinking alcohol.
A monitoring official will keep an eye on him until his sentence expires, whom Pistorius will have to inform if he seeks job opportunities or moves to a new address.
He is also required to continue therapy on anger management and attend sessions on gender-based violence as part of his parole conditions, the Steenkamp family has said.
He is also not permitted to speak to the media.
Local media expect him to live at the home of his uncle Arnold Pistorius in a wealthy Pretoria suburb. Exact details of the plan of his release have reportedly been kept secret, amid reported concerns for his safety.
In a statement shared by the Steenkamp family lawyer on Friday, Reeva’s mother June said: “There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back.”
“We, who remain behind, are the ones serving a life sentence,” June Steenkamp said, adding her only desire was to be allowed to live in peace.
She said the conditions imposed by the parole board had affirmed her belief in the South African justice system as they send out a clear message that gender-based violence is taken seriously.
South Africans have shown mixed reactions to his release, with some feeling he has served his time, while others see his punishment as too lenient.
Ms Steenkamp was a law graduate and successful model who also worked as a TV presenter and appeared in a reality show called Tropika Island of Treasure. She was three months into her relationship with Pistorius when he fired four shots with a pistol through the door of a toilet cubicle at his house in Pretoria in the early hours of 14 February, 2013, killing her almost instantly.
The state charged Pistorius with murder but he was convicted in 2014 of the lesser offence of culpable homicide, or manslaughter.
The following year, judges at the Supreme Court of Appeal changed his conviction to murder, saying that his version of events was inconsistent and improbable and that he had “fired without having a rational or genuine fear that his life was in danger”.
