×

We've got news for you.

Register on SowetanLIVE at no cost to receive newsletters, read exclusive articles & more.
Register now

Oscar to dig deeper into pockets

As convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius and his legal team prepare to approach the Constitutional Court to appeal his murder conviction, the blade runner will need to dig deeper into his pockets.

Pistorius, who is said to be broke, will have to come up with the required fees to enable his legal team to appeal the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that overturned his culpable homicide conviction to murder.

He appeared in the High Court in Pretoria where he was granted bail of R10 000 and his legal team told the court they would be appealing the SCA ruling. The matter was postponed to April 18.

In his affidavit, Pistorius told the court he was unemployed and could only afford bail of R10 000 which had to be paid by December 11.

He added that he was appealing because his rights were infringed by the SCA when it considered points of fact rather than points of law when it convicted him of murder. His advocate Barry Roux told Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba that should their appeal fail, they would return to the High Court for sentence proceedings.

Criminal lawyer Advocate Percy Tshabalala said the move would not be a cheap one.

'ConCourt very expensive'

"The constitutional court is very expensive. They can’t start talking about the Constitutional Court without having money," he said.

"The Constitutional Court is the watchdog of the law. All that is going to be done there is to see if the law was abided [by] constitutionally. When the appeal was made at the SCA, one of the options was that it be taken to trial court. Should they fail at the Constitutional Court, they will revert to the High Court," he said.

In September, Roux told the court that Pistorius could not afford a new trial. Pistorius’s "financial ability" for a new trial was "non-existent", Roux said at the time.

Pistorius's culpable homicide conviction was overturned for a stronger conviction of murder by the SCA last week in Bloemfontein.

He faces a minimum of 15 years for the murder, unless he provides substantial and compelling reasons to the high court to deviate from that.

The SCA’s ruling came almost three years after Pistorius shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp, saying he mistook her for an intruder. He fired four shots into the door of a toilet cubicle in his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day in 2013.

He served one sixth of his five-year sentence in prison and was released in October to serve the remainder under correctional supervision.

Pistorius was electronically tagged on Tuesday following his successful bail application. His bail conditions were also amended and he would only be allowed to travel within a radius of 20km around his uncle's Waterkloof home.

He will be allowed to leave the home between 07:00 and 12:00, and will need written permission from the investigating officer to leave the house outside of those hours.

 

 

 

 

 

News24

 

 

Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.