Oscar Pistorius, the South African athlete who was hailed as an inspirational figure until he was accused and convicted of murdering his girlfriend, was due to be released on parole on Friday after seven years in prison.

Mr. Pistorius was paroled in November on the grounds that he had served half of his 15-year sentence for murder. In 2013, Mr Pistorius shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door before dawn, killing her.

The trial generated headlines and widespread interest around the world: Mr. Pistorius, a double amputee, had gained international recognition first as a Paralympic athlete and then through his participation in the Olympics, and Ms. Steenkamp was a model and reality star. The trial lasted seven months and was televised. The audience watched Mr. Pistorius sob in a South African courtroom and heard testimony from nearly 40 witnesses.

This week, South African authorities stressed that Mr Pistorius’ “increased public profile” would not grant him special treatment. The Department of Correctional Services declined to announce the timing of his release from prison. Authorities also banned Mr. Pistorius from speaking to reporters, in line with rules limiting media interaction.

“Inmates and parolees are never paraded,” the department said in a statement.

Mr. Pistorius will be under parole supervision until 2029, when his sentence officially ends. The now 37-year-old is expected to live with his family and remain in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital. He must also take part in rehabilitation programs and is not allowed to consume alcohol or other banned substances, the authority said.

While the parole decision fell under South Africa’s prison rules, some groups said his release came too soon. Ahead of Mr. Pistorius’s release, a gender rights group highlighting the high rates of violence against women in South Africa resurfaced some of the evidence used against Mr. Pistorius during his trial. The group Women for Change created an image of a text message from Ms Steenkamp to Mr Pistorius, which prosecutors used as evidence during the trial.

“Sometimes I’m afraid of you, of how you push me,” the message said.

“Oscar Pistorius is a murderer and he belongs behind bars to serve his full sentence,” the group said on social media. Last year, Women for Change also publicly opposed Mr. Pistorius’s parole application.

The message on social media was intended to “remind society who Oscar was,” said Bulelwa Adonis, a spokeswoman for the group.

Mr Pistorius’s release on parole followed a complicated legal battle that began in 2013, following the shooting in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013. That morning, Mr Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door at his home in an upscale Pretoria security estate.

Mr Pistorius claimed her death was an accident and that he mistook her for an intruder. Prosecutors argued he killed Ms. Steenkamp out of jealousy after an argument and pointed to her text messages as evidence of an unstable relationship.

Mr Pistorius was initially convicted of manslaughter, but prosecutors appealed and his conviction was upgraded to murder. An appeal court increased his sentence from six to 15 years, the minimum recommended sentence for premeditated murder under South African law.

In March, a parole board rejected his application, saying authorities had wrongly credited him with serving the minimum required prison term. Mr. Pistorius’s lawyers submitted the decision to the Constitutional Court, South Africa’s highest decision-making body, which ruled in his favor, citing a misinterpretation of the point at which Mr. Pistorius’ murder conviction began.

Initially, the Steenkamp family rejected his request for parole on the grounds that they believed Mr. Pistorius had intentionally killed their daughter. Last year, Ms. Steenkamp’s mother, June Steenkamp, ​​did not oppose Mr. Pistorius’s parole application but publicly questioned whether he was truly rehabilitated.

Before his sentencing, Mr Pistorius was praised for his dominance as a Paralympic athlete – he was born without fibula, so his legs were amputated before his first birthday – and for his determination to compete beyond Paralympic events. Mr. Pistorius, nicknamed “Blade Runner” because of the carbon fiber prosthetic blades he ran with, also had a lot of lucrative endorsements.

At 17, Mr. Pistorius had Won gold medals at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. The world governing body for athletics, the IAAF, rejected his bid to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but he fought to regain the ability to run and became the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics by winning the 400 meters in 2012 ran London Games.