{A sentencing hearing for South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, who murdered his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, is due to start in Pretoria.}<\/p>\n
He faces a jail term of at least 15 years, but his sentence can be reduced due to time already spent in prison and mitigating factors.<\/p>\n
A sentence is expected by Friday. He will have no right to appeal.<\/p>\n
Pistorius, 29, killed Ms Steenkamp in February 2013 after firing four times through a locked toilet door.<\/p>\n
The athlete has always maintained he believed he was shooting at an intruder.<\/p>\n
He was initially sentenced to five years for manslaughter, but the conviction was upgraded to murder in December following an appeal by the prosecution.<\/p>\n
Pistorius, a fallen idol<\/p>\n
The trial: 10 key moments<\/p>\n
Original trial judge Thokozile Masipa will hear arguments from both prosecution and defence this week. The Paralympic athlete may testify.<\/p>\n
Reeva Steenkamp’s father, Barry, who has been absent throughout the case due to poor health, may also appear in court.<\/p>\n
Experts say a custodial sentence seems almost unavoidable but factors such as his mental fragility, disability and good behaviour might lead to a reduced jail term.
\nPistorius will not be able to appeal, as a top court ruled in March that he had exhausted all his legal options.<\/p>\n
He was released from prison last October after almost a year in jail and allowed to serve out the remainder of his initial sentence under house arrest on his uncle’s property in Pretoria.<\/p>\n
The South African made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in London in 2012.<\/p>\n
He competed in the 400m, wearing carbon-fibre blades to run against able-bodied athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{A sentencing hearing for South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, who murdered his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, is due to start in Pretoria.} He faces a jail term of at least 15 years, but his sentence can be reduced due to time already spent in prison and mitigating factors. A sentence is expected by Friday. He will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26032"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26032"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}