NPA mulls arrest warrant for Oscar

The NPA is still mulling whether to issue an arrest warrant for Oscar Pistorius following his murder conviction.

Cape Town - The National Prosecuting Authority was on Monday still mulling whether to issue a warrant of arrest for Oscar Pistorius following his murder conviction, as it seeks a court date for sentencing for the former Paralympian sprinter.

“The prosecutors met this morning but it is not clear yet whether we will issue a warrant of arrest,” NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said.

Mfaku said the prosecuting team, which successfully appealed to have Pistorius’s culpable homicide conviction set aside and one of murder imposed, was still in the process of securing a date on which he would appear in the Pretoria High Court.

“We are still waiting for a court date. The prosecuting team is engaging the deputy judge president,” he added.

Mfaku said an arrest warrant was one of the options available to prosecutors to ensure that Pistorius appeared in the high court, where a date for sentencing will formally be set.

“It is one of the instruments that we have at our disposal that will force him to appear in court.”

The other was securing an undertaking from Pistorius’s legal team that he would present himself to court.

When he does, the matter is expected to be postponed to early next year for trial judge Thokozile Masipa to impose an appropriate sentence for murder.

The Supreme Court of Appeal found last week that she had erred in her application of the legal principle of dolus eventualis and that Pistorius had foreseen the likelihood that he would kill somebody when he fired four shots through a locked bathroom door, fatally injuring his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Masipa had imposed a five-year prison term for culpable homicide but murder carries a minimum sentence of 15 years.

Pistorius was released under correctional supervision in October.

ANA