Oscar Pistorius: Murder charge threat grows as prosecutors lodge appeal – but paralympic athlete set for release on house arrest this week
Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius is expected to be released from prison on Friday despite prosecutors stepping up attempts to have him convicted of murder.
Pistorius has served 10 months of a five-year culpable homicide sentence for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013 and is entitled to spend the remainder on house arrest.
South African prosecutors still hope to have the double-amputee runner, 28, convicted of murder, which carries a minimum term of 15 years, and formally filed an appeal to that effect yesterday.
His defence team now has a month to respond, with the appeal hearing set to take place in November. But Pistorius, who insisted he shot law graduate and model Steenkamp by mistake, is due to be leave prison this week and move into his uncle’s house in Pretoria.
Pistorius is banned from competing until his sentence is served. The appeal is likely to rest on a question of law, namely whether Judge Thokozile Masipa correctly interpreted the principle of intent to kill during his trial last year.