{The South African government is set to file its appeal against Oscar Pistorious at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on Monday August 17, 2015.}
The move comes four days to the release of the multiple paralympic medallists on parole.
The double amputee athlete is set to be released from jail on Friday after serving 10 months of his five year sentence for killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The State’s appeal against Pistorius’s culpable homicide conviction will be heard by the same court at a date yet to be determined in November.
Despite his release on parole, Pistorius remains ruled out of next year’s Paralympics after South Africa’s Olympic Committee said the blade runner cannot compete for the full five years of his jail sentence.
The decision of the SA Olympic body is concordant with that of the International Paralympic Committee, which said the Paralympic gold winner cannot run in its events for five years even if released early to go under house arrest.
The athlete stood trial for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, whom he shot four times through a locked toilet door in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013.
Pistorius admitted to shooting Steenkamp, 29, at his upmarket Pretoria home, but told the court that he had mistaken her for an intruder.
The state sought to prove that Pistorius deliberately shot Steenkamp.
But Pretoria High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa found there was not enough evidence to convict the 27-year-old Paralympic and Olympic athlete of premeditated murder.
He was found guilty of culpable homicide, a charge equivalent to manslaughter.
Social media rants
Meanwhile, as his release from Kgosi Mampuru Prison nears, social media pages that were formed in support of his victim Steenkamp have come alive again.
Facebook groups such as “Justice Seekers: Reeva Steenkamp” saw its thousands of members return to vent their anger at the “early release” of the paralympic champion.
“This sentence is an insult to the victim and her family but it will be corrected in November when he gets the correct verdict,” one member wrote.
While Pistorius may be going home before the weekend, he remains a prisoner of the state until 2019.
His freedom will be limited and he will be closely monitored by parole officers.
Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Logan Maistry said Pistorius will not get any special treatment during his parole.
“He will be treated like any other prisoner in the country,” he said.
{{Source: Africa Review}}
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