NPA denies issuing arrest warrant for Oscar

Prosecutors in South Africa have issued a warrant of arrest for Oscar Pistorius after he was convicted of murder, according to reports.

The Pistorius family has said its legal team will advise on legal options following the murder conviction against Pistorius, who shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.

He said scheduling of both an initial court appearance (in the wake of his culpalpable homicide conviction having been overturned on Thursday), and for resentencing depended on the schedule of the high court.

This case involves a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions: a young man overcomes huge physical disabilities to reach Olympian heights as an athlete; in doing so he becomes an worldwide celebrity; he meets a young woman of great natural beauty and a successful model; romance blossoms; and then, ironically on Valentine’s Day, all is destroyed when he takes her life. Firstly, she had failed to correctly apply the legal principle of dolus eventualis and should have found that Pistorius had foreseen that he could have killed a person. “Three, the methods referred back to the trial court to consider an appropriate sentence afresh in light of the comments in this judgment”, said Leach. Pistorius denies deliberately killing Steenkamp, saying he mistook her for an intruder at his home. The judge added that “in firing not one but four shots, such a result became even more likely”.

In South African courts, a murder sentence typically means a minimum of 15 years in jail.

However, an appeals court has now overturned the original verdict, meaning he will have to return to court to be re-sentenced for murder.