South Africa’s “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius was found guilty on Thursday of murdering his girlfriend, in an appeal court ruling that could see him sent back to prison for at least 15 years.
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The athlete left jail on parole in October and is meant to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest, but the Supreme Court of Appeals could now overrule the original verdict and find him guilty of murder or order a retrial.
A date for the former athlete’s new sentencing will be announced in Pretoria, where he had been tried and imprisoned.
The appeals court in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Dec. 3 2015, convicted Pistorius of murder, overturning a lower court’s conviction of the double-amputee Olympian on the lesser charge of manslaughter for shooting his girlfriend to death in 2013.
“He never offered an acceptable explanation for having done so”, said appeals court Judge Eric Leach, reading a summary of the judgment, which said Pistorius gambled with the life of the person in the cubicle.
Masipa ruled that Pistorius could not have foreseen that “either the deceased or anyone else for that matter” might have been killed when he fired shots at the door.
Leach says the judges concluded with “no doubt” that Pistorius foresaw that the person behind the door would die after he pumped four bullets into it.
Legal experts said Pistorius could try to go to the Constitutional Court, but it was unclear whether the case would be regarded as under its jurisdiction.
Prosecutors in South Africa can appeal convictions on questions of law, and Leach found that Masipa committed an “error in law” by incorrectly applying a legal principle called “dolus eventualis”.
Steenkamp’s mother June, who has said she does not want retribution, attended the court session.
Pistorius, who is now on house arrest in his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria, was not present in court when the verdict was read.
Reeva Steenkamp’s father, Barry, told South African television channel ANN7 that he was relieved by the judgment and described it as fair.
Ms Anneliese Burgess, the Pistorius family’s spokesman, said the family would wait for the lawyers’ advice on what to do next. “My daughter’s dead. Our family is devastated living without her. His family is devastated and he’s responsible for that”, she said.
Pistorius, a six-time Paralympic gold medallist whose legs were amputated below the knee as a baby, made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012, running on prosthetic “blades”.
Members of the ruling African National Congress party’s Women’s League supported the verdict.
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Pistorius’ legal team are now considering whether to appeal the decision.
