SOUTH AFRICA - STATE'S BID TO APPEAL OSCAR PISTORIUS'S SENTENCE HAS BEEN REJECTED

The High Court in Johannesburg has dismissed with costs the application by the state to appeal against the six-year jail term imposed on murderer Oscar Pistorius in July.

Judge Thokozile Masipa said‚ after hearing submissions from the state and Pistorius’ lawyers‚ that she was not persuaded that there were reasonable prospects of success on appeal.

Masipa had in 2014 sentenced Pistorius‚ on a culpable homicide conviction‚ to a five-year prison term for the killing of his girlfriend‚ Reeva Steenkamp‚ on February 14 2013.

However‚ the conviction of culpable homicide was set aside by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in December last year and replaced with the murder conviction.

The SCA sent the matter back to the high court for sentencing on the new conviction for murder.

This was the sentence the state wanted to appeal as it felt it was “shockingly inappropriate”.