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JOHANNESBURG. — South Africa’s state prosecutors will appeal the culpable homicide conviction and five-year jail sentence handed down last week on Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said yesterday.
“Oscar Pistorius judgment, NPA will be appealing both the conviction and sentence,” NPA spokesman Nathi Mncube said on his Twitter feed.
Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated as a baby but who ran on carbon fiber prosthetic limbs, was convicted of culpable homicide last month for the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model, at his luxury Pretoria home.
Prosecutors failed to prove murder after the athlete said he fired in the mistaken belief an intruder was hiding behind the door, a defence that struck a chord with many people in a country with one of the world’s highest rates of violent crime.
However, Judge Thokozile Masipa’s decision drew criticism from some legal experts who said she had made an error in her interpretation of the legal concept of ‘dolus eventualis’, whereby a person is held accountable for the foreseeable consequences of their actions.
Other lawyers said her verdict was sound.
In South Africa, an appeal by the state against a verdict can only be made on a matter of law, and does not involve a retrial or the submission of any new evidence.
Meanwhile, the social development department is considering taking disciplinary action against probation officer and social worker Annette Vergeer for offering private services to the defence team in the Pistorius trial.
“In line with the provisions of the Public Service Act, Ms Vergeer applied to the accounting officer of the Gauteng department of social development to render private services while still working for the department but the application had not been granted pending more information from Ms Vergeer,” the national department said in a statement yesterday.
“The department is therefore considering disciplinary action and seeking legal opinion on what seems to be a conflict of interest.”
Vergeer testified during sentencing proceedings for Pistorius in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
During her testimony, the court heard how Vergeer, who recommended correctional supervision for the Paralympian, worked on the matter in her private capacity. — Reuters/Sapa.
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