Shortly after being transferred to house arrest, South African Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius, has been found guilty of murder after a...
Shortly after being transferred to house arrest, South African Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius, has
been found guilty of murder after a South African appeal court
overturned an earlier manslaughter verdict.
The double amputee was released from prison on 19 October since he was
eligible for release under "correctional supervision", having served a
sixth of his sentence. He is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail. Pistorius will have to return to court to be re-sentenced, for murder.
Pistorius always claimed that he believed there was an intruder in
the house but the judge said that the identity of the person behind the
door was "irrelevant to his guilt". Justice Leach equated it to someone setting off a bomb in a public place not knowing who the victims might be.
Under South African law no one can just shoot - one needs first to
determine that the threat to one's life is real and that there is no
other way to eliminate the threat but to shoot.
The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, but judges can apply some discretion.
South
African law does not make provision for someone to be placed under
house arrest for more than five years, so Pistorius will be going back
to prison.
Pistorious was not present during the ruling but Ms Steenkamp's mother, June, was present and afterwards she was seen
outside the court being embraced by members of the African National
Congress Women's League, who were singing songs of celebration.
Many in South Africa were unhappy with the original acquittal of murder
charges, women's rights groups argued that he should have been found
guilty of murder as a deterrent because of the high number of women who
are killed by their partners in the South Africa
