Agence France-Presse
Bloemfontein, Dec 3: Oscar Pistorius was convicted of murder Thursday by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal here, which threw out his earlier conviction on a lesser charge for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
Pistorius is now set to go back to jail after he was released on parole in October having served one year of his five-year sentence for culpable homicide – the equivalent of manslaughter.
“Guilty of murder, with the accused having criminal intent,” judge Eric Leach told the court in a dramatic legal reversal. “The matter is referred back to the trial court to consider an appropriate sentence.”
The 29-year-old star Paralympic sprinter shot dead Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day two years ago. He said during his trial that he mistook her for an intruder when he opened fire at the locked door of his bedroom toilet.
“He did not know whether that person constituted any threat,” Leach said in a damning rejection of the testimony from Pistorius and the original trial judge’s ruling.
“It is inconceivable that a rational person thought he was entitled to fire at this person with a heavy-duty firearm,” added Leach, who described Pistorius’s testimony as ‘vacillating and untruthful’.
“He must have foreseen that the person behind the door might be injured. He ought to have been convicted not of culpable homicide… but of culpable murder,” the judge added.
Pistorius, who was not present in court, now faces a minimum of 15 years in prison for murder. Awaiting his new sentence, he is likely to remain under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria.
Pistorius killed Steenkamp at the peak of his fame, following his historic performance in London in 2012 when he became the first double-amputee to race at Olympic level.
Last month he made his first appearance in public since leaving jail when he reported for community service at a police station in Pretoria.
A Pistorius family spokesman said no statement would be released after Thursday’s verdict. Steenkamp’s mother June was in court, but made no immediate comment.
Pistorius may make his own appeal to South Africa’s Constitutional Court – the country’s highest court. But defence lawyers say he cannot afford further legal battles, having already paid huge bills.
