S. African court rules appeal against Pistorius can go ahead

A South Africa court dismissed Friday an attempt by Oscar Pistorius’s lawyers to stop an appeal that could see the fallen Paralympian hero spend significantly more time behind bars for killing his model girlfriend.

At the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, Pistorius’s defence tried to block the state’s appeal against the champion sprinter being found not guilty of murder.

But Judge Thokozile Masipa, who presided over Pistorius’s trial, criticised the athlete’s lawyers and rejected their application.

The 28-year-old Paralympian was last year found guilty of culpable homicide — a charge akin to manslaughter — and sentenced to five years in prison for shooting Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013.

State prosecutors were granted permission in December to appeal against the verdict, arguing that Masipa misinterpreted the law when she ruled Pistorius did not intentionally kill Steenkamp when he shot four times at a locked toilet door.

Pistorius’s legal team countered that his