Johannesburg - The State’s appeal for the acquittal of murder charges against culpable homicide-convicted Oscar Pistorius will be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein in November, the registrar said.
“A date will be fixed for the November 2015 term for this matter,” registrar of the Supreme Court of Appeal Paul Myburgh confirmed in an email to African News Agency.
More details were not immediately available.
On March 13, Judge Thokozile Masipa, who convicted Pistorius for culpable homicide, dismissed an application by his defence to withdraw the appeal and said there was nothing new in the counsel’s submissions and it would be tantamount to reviewing her own decision.
Pistorius was convicted in September, of culpable homicide for shooting dead his law-graduate girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Steenkamp was killed when Pistorius fired four shots through the locked door of the toilet in his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day 2013, apparently thinking she was an intruder. He was jailed for five years.
The State wants Pistorius's conviction to be that of murder, with a harsher sentence.
In December, Masipa dismissed the State's application to appeal Pistorius's sentence, but agreed to grant it leave to appeal his conviction.
The Paralympian could be released in August for good conduct after 10 months in jail, three months ahead of the appeal.
ANA