This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/world/africa/oscar-pistorius-conviction-sentence-appeal.html
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| South African Prosecutors Say They’ll Appeal Pistorius Conviction and Sentence | South African Prosecutors Say They’ll Appeal Pistorius Conviction and Sentence |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| South African state prosecutors said Monday that they planned to appeal the conviction and sentence handed down to the track star Oscar Pistorius after a seven-month trial that ended last week. | |
| In a post on Twitter, Nathi Mncube, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, said the organization “will be appealing both the conviction and sentence.” The Twitter account could not be verified, and Mr. Mncube could not be immediately reached for comment. | In a post on Twitter, Nathi Mncube, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, said the organization “will be appealing both the conviction and sentence.” The Twitter account could not be verified, and Mr. Mncube could not be immediately reached for comment. |
| Mr. Pistorius, 27, was sentenced to a five-year jail term last week for culpable homicide, equivalent to manslaughter, in the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29, on Feb. 14, 2013. | |
| Under the terms of the sentence, he may be released into house arrest after 10 months. | Under the terms of the sentence, he may be released into house arrest after 10 months. |
| Mr. Pistorius, a double amputee from infancy who achieved global fame, was acquitted of more serious murder charges that could have carried a minimum 25-year jail term. | |
| “The prosecutors are now preparing the necessary papers in order to be able to file within the next few days,” Mr. Mncube said, according to the South African Press Association. | |
| The appeal of Mr. Pistorius’s conviction on a culpable homicide charge was “based on the question of law,” Mr. Mncube said. | |
| “The merits and the demerits of the N.P.A.'s argument in this regard will become evident when we file papers for leave to appeal,” he said, referring to the National Prosecuting Authority by its initials. | |
| Mr. Pistorius, who was also given a suspended three-year jail term on a separate firearms charge, began serving his sentence on Tuesday after Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa handed down her sentence. | |
| Mr. Pistorius had admitted to shooting Ms. Steenkamp to death with a handgun but said that he had fired through a locked toilet cubicle door in the mistaken belief that an intruder had entered his home. | |
| The case provoked much soul-searching in South Africa, raising questions about the prevalence of gun violence. | |
| Those worries surfaced anew late Sunday when the captain of South Africa’s national soccer team, Senzo Meyiwa, was shot to death in a robbery attempt near Johannesburg. | |
| Over the weekend, June Steenkamp, Ms. Steenkamp’s mother, was quoted as saying in a new book that she and her husband, Barry, believed that their daughter had planned to break off her relationship with Mr. Pistorius. | |
| “There is no doubt in our minds: She had decided to leave Oscar that night,” she was quoted as saying. She added that her daughter, a law graduate and model, “had not slept” with Mr. Pistorius because she was “scared to take the relationship to that level.” |