A South African court has struck down athlete Oscar Pistorius’s bid to block prosecutors from appealing the culpable homicide verdict handed down against him, in favour of a murder conviction, for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
At the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, Pistorius’s defence tried to block the state’s appeal against the 28-year-old being found not guilty of Steenkamp’s murder.
But Judge Thokozile Masipa, who presided over Pistorius’s trial, criticised the athlete’s lawyers and rejected their application.
Pistorius was last year found guilty of culpable homicide – a charge akin to manslaughter – and sentenced to five years in prison for shooting Ms Steenkamp in 2013.
State prosecutors were granted permission in December to appeal against the verdict, arguing that Ms Masipa misinterpreted the law when she ruled Pistorius did not intentionally kill Steenkamp when he shot four times at a locked toilet door.
Pistorius’s legal team countered that his conviction was based on facts presented during the trial and therefore could not be appealed.
But Ms Masipa said Pistorius’s lawyers should argue their point in the appeals court itself, adding there was nothing new in their application.
Before I gave my finding in December, both counsel had an opportunity to argue whether the points raised at the time were points of fact or points of law, Ms Masipa told the court.
Procedurally it would be wrong to grant or refuse this application … I strike off the application.
Ms Masipa’s decision paves the way for the prosecution’s appeal to go ahead.
During the trial, Pistorius testified that he shot Steenkamp believing she was an intruder, while the state argued he deliberately killed the 29-year-old law graduate and reality television star after an argument.
If an appeals court finds him guilty of murder, Pistorius could face at least 15 years in jail.
AFP/Reuters
