28 October,2014 08:33 AM IST | | AFP
South African state prosecutors said yesterday they would appeal the verdict and five- year jail term handed down to Oscar Pistorius over the killing of his girlfriend last year
Oscar Pistorius
Pretoria: South African state prosecutors said yesterday they would appeal the verdict and five- year jail term handed down to Oscar Pistorius over the killing of his girlfriend last year.
Oscar Pistorius
The " NPA ( National Prosecuting Authority) will be appealing both the conviction and sentence," spokesman Nathi Mncube said.
Pistorius began a five- year prison stretch on October 21 after being found guilty of culpable homicide, a charge equivalent to manslaughter. But trial judge Thokozile Masipa found there was not enough evidence to convict the 27- year- old Paralympic and Olympic athlete of premeditated murder.
Her verdict angered the state prosecution, which had sought to prove that Pistorius deliberately shot dead 29- yearold Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year.
South African criminal lawyers had expressed shock that Masipa found that Pistorius could not have foreseen that someone would die.
