Former South African Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp by the South African supreme court of appeal on Thursday. The court overturned an earlier conviction of culpable homicide after an appeal from the state. The court also ordered the original trial judge to impose a harsher sentence, reported The Guardian. The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years in prison.
Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend at their home in Pretoria on February 14, 2013. Though Pistorius admitted to shooting Steenkamp, he claimed that he had mistaken her for an intruder. A trial court ruled him guilty of culpable homicide in October 2014 and sentenced him to a five-year prison term. In October this year, he was moved from prison to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest. However, the prosecution team appealed against the verdict of culpable homicide in the supreme court of appeal, demanding a charge of murder.
According to the judgement delivered by the court on Thursday, Pistorius was fully aware that his actions of shooting at the toilet door could result in the death of a human being, but still went ahead and did so. The 29-year-old will now have to return to court to be re-sentenced for murder.
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