End of Oscar trial now in sight

Oscar Pistorius at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. Picture: Gianluigi Guercia

Oscar Pistorius at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. Picture: Gianluigi Guercia

Published Jul 8, 2014

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Pretoria - The closing arguments of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial will proceed at the beginning of August.

After months of witness testimony, the end of the case is now in sight.

Defence advocate Barry Roux told the North Gauteng High court he was unable to call certain witnesses because they were wary of their testimony - even just their audio - being broadcast to the rest of the world. This closed the defence's case.

The last few exhibits from the state were also handed in by prosecutor Gerrie Nel.

Nel said they would file their heads of argument on 30 July, with the defence handing in their own in on 4 August. The closing arguments would then be put to the court on 7 and 8 August.

He asked that the court make an order that the contents of the heads of argument not be published by the media before they were presented in open court.

He said other key documents had leaked to the media and these heads should not be argued in the public domain before the court has seen them.

“That is theft,” said Judge Thokozile Masipa, agreeing with Nel and granting the order.

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