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JOHANESBURG. – The Constitutional Court has dismissed an application by former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius to appeal his 13-year sentence for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
“The Constitutional Court has considered the application for condonation and leave to appeal. It has concluded that the application for condonation should be granted but that the application for leave to appeal should be dismissed as it does not engage this court’s jurisdiction,” the court said in an order dated March 28.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku welcomed the decision.
“It has always been our contention that their application for leave to appeal has no prospects of success, hence we are pleased with the order of the Constitutional Court,” Mfaku told News24.
The world-renowned athlete was arrested on Valentine’s Day in 2013 – the day Steenkamp was killed.
He had fired four shots through a bathroom door, while Steenkamp was inside. However, he claimed that he believed there was an intruder inside.
In the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria in 2014, Judge Thokozile Masipa initially convicted Pistorius of culpable homicide. He was later sentenced to five years in prison.
Pistorius served 10 months of the five-year sentence before he was released and placed under house arrest.
But the State appealed the culpable homicide conviction, and in 2016 the Supreme Court of Appeal changed the conviction to one of murder.
Masipa imposed a six-year jail term for the murder.
But the State petitioned the SCA directly and argued that the six-year sentence was too lenient.
In November 2017, the SCA said Pistorius should have been sentenced to 15 years, but the court took into account the time he had already served.
The SCA increased the jail sentence to 13 years and five months. – News24
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