#OscarPistorius: Large media scrum for sentencing

Oscar Pistorius is escorted by police officers as he leaves the high court in Pretoria. It is D-Day for Pistorius, who will be re-sentenced - this time for murder. File picture: Themba Hadebe

Oscar Pistorius is escorted by police officers as he leaves the high court in Pretoria. It is D-Day for Pistorius, who will be re-sentenced - this time for murder. File picture: Themba Hadebe

Published Jul 6, 2016

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Pretoria - Local and international news crews braved the chilly weather in Pretoria early on Wednesday morning, camping outside the high court ahead of the sentencing of disgraced former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius.

After 5am, around 10 outside broadcast vans and numerous smaller vehicles had taken up all parking spots along Madiba Street, outside the court.

Some passers-by, rushing off to work, momentarily stopped and took pictures of the large media contingent. Others inquired about the presence of the media at the court while some were well informed about the developments.

"This matter has dragged for years now, it has to be finalised," remarked one woman to her friends.

Several members of the Tshwane Metro Police Department were milling at the scene, ensuring a free flow of traffic along the busy street.

Wednesday is D-Day for Pistorius, who will be re-sentenced in the High Court in Pretoria – this time for the 2013 murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

A murder conviction carries a minimum sentence of 15 years, unless there are substantial and compelling circumstances to impose a lesser sentence.

Pistorius was released from prison in October last year after serving a year of his initial five-year sentence for culpable homicide.

But that conviction was overturned in December and instead converted to murder by the Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein.

Pistorius was convicted of murder for fatally shooting Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day, 2013. Believing she was an intruder, Pistorius claims he made a mistake when he shot his model girfriend four times through the locked toilet door of his en-suite bathroom at his Pretoria home.

Judge Thokozile Masipa, who presided over the original trial, will re-sentence Pistorius on Wednesday.

During sentencing proceedings in June, the court heard mitigating and aggravating factors.

Pistorius cut a pitiful figure when he walked on his stumps in the court to show his "vulnerability".

African News Agency

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