Nearly 90% of social media activity on Thursday was dedicated to the ruling made by the Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein which found Oscar Pistorius guilty of murder.
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Prosecutors in South Africa have issued a warrant of arrest for Oscar Pistorius after he was convicted of murder, according to reports.
While he awaits a new sentencing, the six-time Paralympic gold medalist will remain under house arrest after serving just under a year of his original five-year sentence.
The former track star is now under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria.
In October previous year, Judge Thokozile Masipa found Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide – after he shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the bathroom of their Pretoria home on Valentines Day in 2013, claiming to have mistaken her for a burglar.
He said that during their discussions on the matter, the issue of Pistorius applying for bail arose, but the decision ultimately rested with the judge president. His family said lawyers were studying the latest finding for advice on “options going forward”.
Although he has not yet been sentenced Pistorius will now face a minimum of 15 years in prison, following the change of his charge. In worldwide news, Pistorius was the fourth most popular news item in the last 24 hours garnering 10.6% of the coverage. Prosecutors said he killed her after an argument. In acquitting Pistorius of murder, Masipa ruled that Pistorius could not have anticipated that someone might die before he shot four times through a door into a toilet cubicle, killing Steenkamp.
Judge Eric Leach decided Thursday that Pistorius ought to have anticipated that discharging a weapon would have killed whoever was behind the entryway in his washroom, paying little respect to the individual’s character.
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The trial of Pistorius, who became a global icon as the first double amputee to compete at the Olympics in 2012, attracted worldwide attention. Pistorius may now make his own appeal to South Africa’s Constitutional Court – the country’s highest court.
