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Oscar Pistorius prosecutors to appeal against verdict | |
(35 minutes later) | |
South Africa’s state prosecutors will appeal the culpable homicide conviction and five-year jail sentence handed down last week on Olympic and Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has said. | |
“Oscar Pistorius judgement, NPA will be appealing both the conviction and sentence,” NPA spokesman Nathi Mncube said on his Twitter feed. | |
Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated as a baby but who ran on carbon fibre prosthetic limbs, was convicted of culpable homicide last month for the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model, at his Pretoria home. | |
Prosecutors failed to prove murder after the athlete said he fired in the mistaken belief an intruder was hiding behind the door. | |
Judge Thokozile Masipa’s ruling drew criticism from some legal experts who said she had made an error in her interpretation of the legal concept of “dolus eventualis”, whereby a person is held accountable for the foreseeable consequences of their actions. | |
Other lawyers said her verdict was sound. | |
In South Africa, an appeal by the state against a verdict can only be made on a matter of law, and does not involve a retrial or the submission of any new evidence. | |
More details soon … |