The Appeal Court has handed down the mandatory 15 years for murder in South Africa.

With time served, Pistorius has been jailed for 13 years and five months.

Reeva Steenkamp’s parents June and Barry say that justice has been served by the heavier sentence handed down to her murderer

They add that the can now get on with their lives.

However, the drama does not necessarily end here.

Pistorius could petition the Constitutional Court to review the Appeal Court decision.

Gerrie Nel, the aggressive prosecutor nicknamed the Rottweiler , says the tougher sentence has affirmed his faith in South Africa’s justice system.

Nel, who now prepares private prosecutions for a rightwing pressure group, brought the appeal saying the six year sentence handed down to Pistorius was shockingly lenient.

Appeal Court judge Willie Seriti agreed.

The full bench of judges found the trial judge Thokozile Masipa  had taken too much account  of Pistorius’s disability and had erred in believing that fear of an intruder had provoked him to fire four shots through a bathroom door killing Steenkamp.

Her original verdict of manslaughter was overturned by the Appeal Court in 2015.  Ordered to impose a sentence for murder, she found substantial and compelling reasons to hand down a sentence of six years.

Seriti said Pistorius had failed to use an opportunity in court to explain his actions and wasnot remorseful.

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The paralympic star was sentenced to six years when the lesser sentence for culpable homicide was overturned by the Appeal Court in July 2016 and replaced by murder.

The state’s case will be argued by Andrea Johnson. She  was the assistant to Gerrie Nel who became a household name for his aggressive  prosecution of Oscar Pistorius.

Nel, who now works for a right wing pressure group used the phrase “shockingly low” for the five year sentence handed down when Pistorius was found guilty of the South African equivalent of manslaughter.

Nel was still with the prosecution service when the Appeal Court found Pistorius guilty of murder and ordered the trial judge Thokozile Masipa to re-sentence him.

He baulked at the judge sending Pistorius down for six years.

Johnson will argue that the minimum sentence  for murder in South Africa is 15 years.

Defence counsel will argue that Masipa correctly found substantial and compelling circumstances justifying her handing Pistorius a lesser sentence.

Pistorius will not be court today. He’s in a special prison in Pretoria accommodating his physically disability. He has no legs below the knees .

The appeal judges will hand down their ruling at a later date.

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Judge Thokozile Masipa’s  rejected the State’s bid for leave to appeal the six-year jail sentence for murder she eventually  imposed on Pistorius.

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It was Judge Thokozile Masipa who found Oscar Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide and sent him to jail for five year  years.

The Appeal Court overturned that last December and found the legless athlete guilty of murder – giving rise to the  heavier sentence she imposed.

She pointed out that time that there was not a shred of evidence that Pistorius knew when he was firing through a toilet door that his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was on the other side.

Pistorius’s defence has been that he believed he was shooting at an intruder.

Masipa said in the Pretoria High Court today (Friday) that she’s  not persuaded that there are reasonable prospects of success for an appeal. She dismissed with costs the application for leave to appeal.

Earlier, Barry Roux, for Pistorius, argued that the State was merely dragging out legal processes and subjecting the former Paralympian to continued uncertainty.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued that deviating from the prescribed 15-year minimum sentence for murder induces a sense of shock.

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Dr Jonathon Scholtz tells a sentencing hearing in the Pretoria High Court that Pistorius should be hospitalised not returned to prison as is expected after his manslaughter conviction was upgraded to murder.

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The sentencing hearing for South Africa’s disgraced golden boy is set down to last until Friday.

Judge Thokozile Masipa, who’s manslaughter conviction was overturned by the Appeal Court who found Oscar Pistorius guilty of murder, is once again on the bench.

She has to impose the harsher sentence on the accused, who insists he fired the fatal shots that killed Reeva Steenkamp through the bathroom door of his apartment believing there was an  intruder.

South Africa’s criminal law lays down a mandatory 15 year sentence for murder.

1. Masipa may reduce this if there are extraordinary circumstances. She may also take into account that Pistorius has served a year in prison of  the five-year sentence she originally laid down.

Psychiatrist Jonathon Scholtz reported during the original trial that there were two Oscars – the Olympic hero with his prosthesis and the insecure frightened boy on his stumps.

Now he says there’s a third Pistorius  who’s too broken-sprited to give evidence in mitigation of his sentence.

He’s suffering deep anxiety, paranoia and post traumatic stress.

He should be hospitalized not incarcerated.

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After a week of hearing sentencing testimony, the judge will take at least a few more days to hand down her decision.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel’s pressing for a 15 year custodial sentence for the man found guilty of culpable homicide. He produces the acting head of South Africa’s prison services Zach Modise.

The chief warder says South African prisons are perfectly capable of accommodating someone like Pistorius, who is a double amputee.

Defence counsel Barry Roux extracts an undertaking from Modise that, if jailed, Pistorius will be housed in the prison hospital.

Steenkamp’s cousin Kim Martin testifies that Reeva’s death has destroyed her family.

She says they’re not seeking revenge but Pistorius should be made to pay for negligently shooting Steenkamp.

The headlines are grabbed by events in the public gallery.

Self-confessed killer Mikey Schulz sits in seats reserved for the Pistorius family.

When asked to leave he mouths an obscenity at the accused’s sister Aimee before being escorted out by police.

Schulz, who’s supporting a friend who might have been called to testify about a barroom argument with Pistorius, denies this saying Aimee is a liar like her brother.

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The prosecution’s been trying to punch holes in the testimony of a medical expert who says that because the accused has no lower legs and is unsteady on his stumps, he opted for fight rather than flight when he mistook his lover Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder behind the toilet door.

Oscar Pistorius’s lawyer Barry Roux asked Judge Thokozile Masipa for an adjournment until today, saying he needed to get proper instructions before closing the case.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel contends Pistorius’s sports doctor overstated his immobility on his stumps.

He contends Professor Wayne Derman cannot be objective because he is the accused’s caregiver.

Pistorius’s defence team say his disability and anxiety disorder led the paralympian to shoot Reeva
Steenkamp out of fear that she was an intruder.
A re-enactment video commissioned by the defence shows Oscar moving with greater mobility without his prosthesis than Derman testified.

It’s been aired by an Australian television network, but has not been entered as evidence before the court.

Pistorius’s team warned against any other media rebroadcasting the clip.
Steenkamp’s mother June has told a British magazine she’s forgiven Pistorius and doesn’t hate him.
However she’s determined to face him and re-claim her daughter.

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