Police issue arrest warrant for Oscar Pistorius

Prosecutors in South Africa are pushing for Oscar Pistorius to appear in court as soon as possible so a date can be set for his sentencing, after the country’s top appeal court returned a murder verdict. 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.

The murder conviction comes as the result of a South African appeals court’s decision to overturn a prior manslaughter conviction.

The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years but a judge can display discretion in sentencing.

Justice Eric Leach called the incident a “human tragedy of Shakespearean proportion” as he started reading the ruling. Sentencing would depend specifically on the availability of trial Judge Tholozile Masipa and was only likely to happen next year, Mfaku said.

In the early morning hours of February 14, 2013, Mr. Pistorius allegedly shot and killed the late Ms. Reeva Steenkamp at his home in the district of Pretoria.

“I conclude with the following order to be made: one, the first two questions of law reserved are answered in favour of the director of public prosecutions”.

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

On Friday AEST, the Supreme Court upgraded the Pistorius’ original five-year sentence from “culpable homicide” – the nation’s version of manslaughter – to murder.