Pistorius’ lawyer Barry Roux has said that the former Paralympic athlete’s “financial ability” to pay for another trial would be “non-existent” following the the amount of money he spent on the initial trial.
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He was due to leave prison on August 21, exactly 10 months on from his sentencing.
Roux argues the State was trying to attack Masipa’s finding that Pistorius did not intend to kill Ms Steenkamp, and that it was not allowed to do this.
A parole review board will meet Friday to discuss the Paralympian’s case and make a decision as to whether or not he is fit to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest.
But Justice Minister Michael Masutha unexpectedly stepped in to halt the move, saying the parole board had acted prematurely by setting the release date.
The judge accepted his version of events and cleared him of murder, but he was found guilty of culpable homicide and jailed for five years.
He was sentenced to five years in jail. For now Pistorius remains behind bars pinning his hopes on the Parole Review Board for a slice of freedom.
In a brief statement to the media, Wolela said this week: “The Parole Review Board is an independent structure from the Department of Correctional Services and its chairperson will determine if and when the announcement of their session’s results will be announced”. “I’m not a bookkeeper”.
Alternatively, the panel could rule that Pistorius must remain in prison.
Pistorius’s lawyers disagree, arguing the State does not have a legal basis to bring its appeal in the first place – because their challenge isn’t based on the judge’s legal interpretation but rather her evaluation of the evidence.
Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympic runner, was acquitted of murder at the end of his seven-month trial previous year and was instead convicted of a lesser charge comparable to manslaughter for shooting Steenkamp through a toilet door in his home.
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Should Pistorius be found guilty of murder, he would serve a minimum of 15 years in prison.
