Pretoria – The six-year jail sentence which was initially given to Oscar Pretorius was on Friday extended with 9 more years, summing up a 15-year jail time for the former Olympian and Paralympian.
Many people believed the six-year jail sentence which was initially given to the Paralympian was not enough for a person who have killed his girlfriend in cold blood.
The state has to challenge the sentence and successfully won the appeal as more years had to be added to provide justice and closure to Reeva Steenkamp’s family.
The Paralympian who has already spent jail time in prison, will serve an effective 13-year sentence with immediate effect.
The decision is the second time in which SCA has overturned a finding by trial judge Thokozile Masipa who preceded over Oscar’s murder trial.
Initially, Masipa sentenced the Paralympian to five years’ imprisonment in terms of a provision in the Criminal Procedure Act, which determined that he could only serve 10 months in jail before he could be released on correctional supervision/ essentially house arrest.
Aggrieved by this verdict by Masipa, the State turned to the SCA, which in December 2015 replaced the culpable homicide conviction with one of murder.
The matter was referred back to Judge Masipa for sentencing who on July 6 in 2016 added one year only, ruling that there were mitigating factors to deviate from the prescribed 15-year jail term.
Still not satisfied, the State filed an appeal leading to an additional 9-year jail sentence for the Paralympian.
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