Oscar Pistorius injured in prison brawl over phone call
Convicted murderer and former Paralympic champion, Oscar Pistorius, has been injured in a prison brawl in the South African prison where he is currently serving a 13-year jail term for the murder of his girlfriend.
It is believed that the brawl on December 6 began over the use of a public phone.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), Pistorius sustained a bruise following the alleged altercation with another inmate over the use of the phone in the special care unit where the two are currently detained at Attridge correctional centre.
Pistorius was moved to the prison facility which caters for prisoners with physical disabilities in November 2016.
Singabakho Nxumalo, spokesperson for the DCS said that an official investigation has been launched into the incident.
Unconfirmed reports from local media outlets have said that fellow inmates were angry because of a lengthy phone call made by Pistorius on the public phone.
Pistorius, a double amputee, is currently serving a 13-year sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius killed Ms Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day 2013 after shooting four times through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home.
Claiming he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, he was initially convicted of manslaughter.
That conviction was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court in 2015.
On November 24 of this year, Pistorius had his sentence increased to 13 years and five months by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal.
