South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to six years in jail on Wednesday July 06,2016 for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home three years ago.
High Court judge Thokozile Masipa listed several mitigating factors for sentencing him to less than half the minimum 15-year term for murder, including the athlete's claim he believed he was shooting an intruder.
"The sentence that I impose on the accused... is six years imprisonment," she said.
Oscar Pistorius(29)hugged his family before being taken out of the court in Pretoria to begin serving his term.
The double-amputee Olympic and Paralympic sprinter was freed from prison in October 2015 after serving one year of a five-year term for culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter.
But an appeals court upgraded his conviction to murder in December 2015
The sentencing may not be the end of the long legal battle, as Pistorius or the state could launch a final round of appeals against the length of the prison term.
Note
Oscar Pistorius shot Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
Oscar Pistorius, who pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014, has always denied killing Steenkamp in a rage, saying he was trying to protect her.
Oscar Pistorius known as "Blade Runner" for the carbon-fibre prosthetic blades on which he used to race,whose lower legs were amputated when he was a baby, initially received a five-year sentence for culpable homicide, South Africa's equivalent of manslaughter. The conviction was later upgraded to murder after an appeal heard by the Supreme Court.
Oscar Pistorius became the first double amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes when he raced at the London 2012 Olympics after a five-year fight for the right to run on equal terms.
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