Former Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius will face sentencing for murder in June. The 29-year-old faces a lengthy prison term after a South African appeals court overturned an earlier conviction of manslaughter and found him guilty of murder for his shooting of Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013
Oscar Pistorius
Johannesburg: Former Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius will face sentencing for murder in June. The 29-year-old faces a lengthy prison term after a South African appeals court overturned an earlier conviction of manslaughter and found him guilty of murder for his shooting of Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013.
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The South African double amputee sprinter's agent, Peet van Zyl, told Press Association Sport on Wednesday he expects sentencing to be from June 13-17. Pistorius insisted he thought his girlfriend was an intruder behind a toilet door in his home and was initially found guilty of culpable homicide, or manslaughter.
However, that verdict was upgraded by South Africa's Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein in December. A 15-year prison sentence is the minimum punishment for murder in South Africa.
However, the law allows for a lesser sentence to be imposed in exceptional circumstances and the time already served by Pistorius will likely be taken into account.
The 'Blade Runner' was released in October 2015 after serving less than a year of his original five-year sentence, with the remainder to be completed under house arrest.