|
 His uncle, Arnold Pistorius, indicated he would not appeal.
As judge Thokozile Masipa gave her decision on the 27-year-old's
culpable homicide conviction, Pistorius, whose downfall has been
likened to that of American football star O.J. Simpson, stood
resolutely in the dock.
His only reaction was to wipe his eyes before two police officers
led him to the holding cells beneath the High Court in the heart of
the South African capital.
Ninety minutes later, an armored police vehicle carrying Pistorius -
still dressed in dark suit, white shirt and black tie - left the
building through a throng of reporters toward Pretoria Central
Prison, where he is expected to serve his time.
Once the execution site for opponents of South Africa's former
white-minority government, the jail is now home to the country's
most hardened criminals, including the man known as "Prime Evil",
apartheid death squad leader Eugene de Kock.
Prisons officials said Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated
when he was a baby, would be housed in a separate and secure
hospital wing of the massive complex.
"ONE LAW FOR ALL"
In delivering her decision, 67-year-old Masipa stressed the
difficulty of arriving at a decision that was "fair and just to
society and to the accused".
She also rebuffed suggestions that Pistorius - a wealthy and
influential white man - might be able to secure preferential justice
despite the "equality before law" guarantee enshrined in the
post-apartheid 1996 constitution.
"It would be a sad day for this country if an impression were
created that there is one law for the poor and disadvantaged, and
one law for the rich and famous," she said.
Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model, died almost
instantly on Valentine's Day last year when Pistorius shot her
through a locked toilet door at his luxury Pretoria home.
Prosecutors pushed for a murder conviction, but the athlete
maintained he fired in the mistaken belief an intruder was hiding
behind the door, a defense that struck home in a country with one of
the world's highest rates of violent crime.
The ruling African National Congress' Women's League, which is at
the forefront of political efforts to tackle violence against South
African women, on Tuesday called for an appeal by the state against
the Sept. 12 culpable homicide conviction.
But Steenkamp's family said it was satisfied with the sentence.
"Justice was served," family lawyer Dup De Bruyn told reporters
outside the court. The judge had given "the right sentence", he
said.
"DARK AGES" GONE
With no minimum sentence for culpable homicide, South Africa's
equivalent of manslaughter, Pistorius could have been punished with
a few years of house arrest combined with community service.
Before the decision, protesters picketed outside the court, a sign
of the anger that might have ensued and the damage that might have
been done to an often-criticized judicial system if the sentence
were seen as too light.
"Why are certain offenders more equal than others before the law?"
said protester Golden Miles Bhudu, dressed in orange prison garb and
wrapped in chains as he ridiculed Pistorius' retching and crying
during the seven-month trial, the first in South Africa to be
broadcast live throughout.
[to top of second column]
|
"He screams like a girl, he cries like a baby but he shoots like a
soldier," Bhudu said.
However, Masipa pointed to the moral and philosophical changes South
Africa has undergone since the end of white rule and the 1994
election of Nelson Mandela, saying the courts were no longer about
mob justice and an "eye-for-an-eye".
"As a country we have moved on from the dark ages," she said.
"Society cannot always get what they want because courts do not
exist to win popularity contests."
Many ordinary South Africans were unimpressed, especially after
Pistorius' defense lawyer, Barry Roux, said he expected the athlete
to serve only 10 months of the five-year sentence behind bars, and
the remainder under house arrest.
"They are only scaring him with this sentence. It shows our society
hasn't transformed," said Johannes Mbatha, a 38-year-old minibus
taxi driver waiting at a Johannesburg bus station.
"If it was a black man he would have never received such a light
sentence. But that's how things are in South Africa."
In Steenkamp's home town of Port Elizabeth, a handful of family
friends at a bar owned by her parents raised their hands in
recognition of the five-year sentence.
"I thought he would walk," said 50-year-old Martin Cohen, who worked
as a race horse trainer with Steenkamp's father, Barry, who suffered
a stroke shortly after his daughter's killing.
The state prosecuting authority, which has two weeks to decide
whether to launch an appeal against the verdict, said Pistorius was
likely to serve at least a third of his sentence in prison or 20
months.
On a separate conviction for firing a handgun in a packed
Johannesburg restaurant, Pistorius was given a three-year suspended
sentence.
Even if he is freed early, Pistorius will not be able to resume his
athletics career until his full term is served, the International
Paralympic Committee said, ruling out any appearance at the 2016 Rio
Olympics.
Known as "Blade Runner" because of his carbon-fibre prosthetics,
Pistorius became one of the biggest names in world athletics at the
London 2012 Olympics when he reached the semi-finals of the 400m
race against able-bodied athletes.
(Additional reporting by David Dolan and Mfuneko Toyana in
Johannesburg and Ed Stoddard in Port Elizabeth; Writing by Ed
Cropley; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Louise Ireland)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
