Sport
South Africa: “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorious faces 2 additional firearm charges
Pistorius’s murder trial is due to start March 3 and the 26-year-old disabled runner faces a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison if he is convicted on the main charge of premeditated murder in the killing of Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day this year.
Mncube declined to detail the charges being added, only saying there were two counts and they covered “the contravention of the firearms control act.”
The South African media has reported that Pistorius has twice shot a gun in a public place: One time out of a moving car when he was driving with a former girlfriend and another at a restaurant in Johannesburg when he apparently accidentally fired a friend’s gun under a table while admiring it.
Pistorius spokeswoman Anneliese Burgess told reporters that the Pistorius family did not want to comment on “legal aspects” of the case.
But Mncube said Pistorius’s lawyers had argued against him being charged and tried in a Pretoria court for alleged offences that occurred in Johannesburg.
“They are not saying he can’t be charged for those, they are saying he can’t be charged in a different jurisdiction,” Mncube said.
Mncube’s National Prosecuting Authority would not comment on any of the details surrounding the two charges to be added, but people who are believed to have been present at those incidents were included in the prosecution’s list of more than 100 trial witnesses when Pistorius was indicted two months ago.
