Oscar Pistorius plans to appeal murder conviction at constitutional court

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa’s Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius plans to appeal his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at the constitutional court, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

His lawyer Barry Roux said during the application for bail on the murder conviction that the athlete would appeal the Supreme Court ruling at the country’s top court. It was not immediately clear on what ground the appeal would be based on.

Known as “Blade Runner” because of the carbon fibre prosthetic blades he used to race, Pistorius faces a minimum 15-year jail sentence for murdering his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day 2013 in a case that has fascinated and divided South Africa.

The Supreme Court last Thursday upgraded the 29-year-old athlete’s sentence to murder from culpable homicide, South Africa’s equivalent of manslaughter, for which he had received a five-year sentence.

Pistorius had been meant to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest on his uncle’s property in a wealthy suburb of the capital Pretoria.

A new sentence for the Paralympic champion for the charge of murder will be handed down at a later date.

(Reporting by TJ Strydom, Writing by James Macharia, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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