Read more
Magistrates cry foul over payment issues
Gerrie Nel starts closing arguments
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel began his closing arguments in sentencing proceedings for paralympian Oscar Pistorius in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
FILE PICTURE: Prosecutor Gerrie Nel is seen during sentencing of Oscar Pistorius. Picture: Antoine de Ras/Independent Newspapers/ Pool
Nel, as he had done several times during the trial, brought the focus back to Reeva Steenkamp.
“We have to sit back and to think about what happened to the deceased in this matter. This is the portion of the trial where we have to think about her,” he said.
Barry Roux, for Pistorius, concluded his arguments after one-and-a-half hours.
On September 12, Judge Thokozile Masipa found Pistorius guilty of the culpable homicide of model and law graduate Steenkamp, but not guilty of her murder. Pistorius had claimed he thought there was a burglar in his toilet when he fired four shots through the locked door in the early hours of February 14 last year, killing Steenkamp.
Masipa found Pistorius guilty of discharging a firearm in public, when he shot from his friend Darren Fresco’s Glock pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, in January 2013.
Pistorius was found not guilty on two firearms-related charges – illegal possession of ammunition, and shooting through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012.
– Sapa
Follow @CitiReporter on twitter for live updates from inside and outside court or click here for the live twitter feed.
