Bloemfontein - A large contingent of international and local media camped outside the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein on Thursday ahead of its ruling on whether it will convict Paralympian Oscar Pistorius for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Judgement by a full panel of SCA judges is expected to start at 9.45am.
Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide last year and sentenced to five years in prison for fatally shooting Steenkamp through a locked toilet door on Valentine’s Day in 2013. He served less than a year of his sentence before being released in October this year.
Pistorius argued in court that he had believed an intruder was hiding in the cubicle.
The State appealed, asking that a verdict of murder to be imposed instead.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued that Pretoria High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa had erred in her application of the legal principle of dolus eventualis, and that she had been wrong to conclude that Pistorius, a firearms enthusiast, had not foreseen that firing four shots into the door was likely to kill or injure the person behind it.
He argued that Masipa had been wrong to dismiss circumstantial evidence that showed that Pistorius’s version of events was impossible.
If the culpable homicide conviction is overturned, and he is found guilty of murder, Pistorius faces a return to jail and a 15-year prison sentence. The appeals court can also order a retrial or rule that the culpable homicide conviction was correct.
Pistorius and his family will not be at the court on Thursday morning .
Pistorius is now under correctional supervision at his uncle Arnold's plush suburban house in Pretoria East. His family said they will not be in court then the ruling is read.
ANA and AP