The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) yesterday said it was trying to bring Oscar Pistorius before court urgently – for a sentencing date to be set after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) convicted him of murder for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
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Prosecutors have alleged that the deceased, 29-year-old magazine model Miss Steenkamp, was shot through a bathroom door on Valentine’s Day following an argument, however, Pistorius has disputed this assertion in claiming that he killed her by mistake after mistaking her for an intruder.
In South Africa, however, the minimum sentence for murder is 15 years, although judges are able to apply some discretion.
Justice Eric Leach called the incident a “human tragedy of Shakespearean proportion” as he started reading the ruling.
The Appeal Court said the concept had been incorrectly applied by Judge Masipa in the original trial.
The runner’s sentencing for his recent murder conviction is expected to arrive not this year but next, in 2016.
“I conclude with the following order to be made: one, the first two questions of law reserved are answered in favour of the director of public prosecutions. Three, the methods referred back to the trial court to consider an appropriate sentence afresh in light of the comments in this judgment”, said Leach.
She must now re-sentence Pistorius, who is currently out on parole after serving less than a year of his original five-year sentence.
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Pistorius was to see out the remainder under correctional supervision and is under house arrest at his uncle’s home in Pretoria.
