Oscar Pistorius is set to appear in court today for a bail hearing that could send him back to jail after he was convicted of murder on appeal for shooting dead his girlfriend.
The Supreme Court of Appeal last week threw out his earlier conviction on the lesser charge of culpable homicide for killing Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013.
Oscar Pistorious
Pistorius, 29, is under house arrest in Pretoria after serving one year of his five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide.
“It’s a bail application. His (earlier) conviction has been overturned, so his sentence from before has been scrapped,” Lusanda Ntuli, spokeswoman for the justice ministry said.
“The defence and prosecution will present their arguments.”
The double-amputee athlete now faces a minimum 15-year jail sentence for murder, although the term could be shorter if he is released on parole.
“If he is given bail, it may come with different conditions perhaps not as stringent as house arrest,” criminal lawyer Martin Hood told AFP.
Pistorius killed Steenkamp at his home in Pretoria two years ago, saying he mistook her for an intruder when he shot through the locked door of his bedroom toilet.
The appeal court ruling changed his conviction to murder and sent the case for re-sentencing, saying the original trial judge had made “fundamental” errors in her ruling.