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Oscar to contest state appeal

South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius reacts to the verdict in his murder trial at the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, 12 September 2014. Judge Thokozile Masipa found South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius not guilty of the murder of Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 but guilty of culpable homicide. EPA/ALON SKUY / POOL
South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius reacts to the verdict in his murder trial at the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, 12 September 2014. Judge Thokozile Masipa found South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius not guilty of the murder of Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 but guilty of culpable homicide. EPA/ALON SKUY / POOL

Lawyers for paralympian Oscar Pistorius will on Friday appeal the court decision allowing the State to appeal his culpable homicide conviction.

Judge Thokozile Masipa granted the State's application to appeal Pistorius's culpable homicide conviction, but dismissed its application to appeal his five-year jail sentence.

The State wants him to be convicted on the more serious charge of murder.

In September, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for shooting dead his model and law-graduate girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

He fired four shots through the locked door of the toilet in his Pretoria home on Valentine's Day 2013, apparently thinking she was an intruder. He was jailed for five years.

 

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