State argued athlete’s original sentence of six years for murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was ‘shockingly lenient’A South African appeal court has more than doubled the former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius’s prison sentence for murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The supreme court of appeal (SCA) increased Pistorius’s sentence from six years in prison to 13 years and five months. Steenkamp’s family welcomed the longer sentence and said it showed that justice could prevail in South Africa. He served only 10 months of the five-year sentence in prison before being released and put under house arrest. His lawyers have just one avenue open to them if they want to challenge the new sentence handed down by the supreme court, and that is to appeal to the constitutional court, the highest court in South Africa.

Source: The Guardian November 24, 2017 08:06 UTC