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South African Authorities Issue Arrest Warrant For Oscar Pistorius

South African Authorities Issue Arrest Warrant For Oscar Pistorius

From Los Angeles Times

South African prosecutors on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Oscar Pistorius, after the double-amputee athlete’s conviction in the death of his girlfriend was changed by an appeals court from reckless killing to the more serious charge of murder.

A High Court hearing is expected next week to set a date for sentencing. Pistorius may apply for bail at the hearing, pending sentencing.

The arrest warrant, reported in local media, means Pistorius may be forced to spend his second Christmas in prison.

The Supreme Court of Appeal on Thursday swept away the trial judge’s initial ruling in Pistorius’ case, saying she made legal errors and ignored key evidence in a confusing judgment. The appeals court imposed a murder verdict and sent the case back to High Court for sentencing.

Pistorius spent a year in jail in the hospital wing of Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru II Prison, in a narrow single room with a metal bed, a wash basin, a table, yellow walls, blue prison sheets, a cupboard and a window high in the wall.

South African prison authorities took the unusual step this week of allowing journalists to tour his former cell.

Under the previous widely criticized five-year sentence for culpable homicide, or reckless killing, Pistorius was allowed to leave prison in October to serve out the remaining four years at his uncle’s Pretoria home. He is now expected to receive a new sentence that could include a hefty prison term and potentially a return to the same hospital cell.

Although prison authorities deny Pistorius had received special treatment, the conditions in his cell were a far cry from the crowded, dormitory-style conditions where most South African prisoners are housed — and where violence and tuberculosis are rife.

“We are trying to arrange with the Pretoria High Court that he can appear before court, where the matter will be formally postponed for sentencing. We are trying to do this as a matter of extreme urgency,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku told local media Friday.

Read more at Los Angeles Times