SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE have said that Oscar Pistorius will return to court on Monday now that they have completed their investigation into the shooting dead of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Prosecutors said today they have finalised their case against the Olympic and Paralympic sprinter who will return to court on the date his slain girlfriend would have turned 30.
“We have finalised the indictment, which contains a full list of the charges,” said Bulelwa Makeke, the National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman. “It will be served on Monday.”
In a statement police confirmed they had completed the murder investigation.
The 26-year-old double amputee is charged with fatally shooting Steenkamp in the early hours of 14 February through a locked bathroom door in his upmarket Pretoria home.
The star athlete claims he mistook her for an intruder, but prosecutors argue it was premeditated murder, which carries a sentence of life imprisonment. Pistorius’s lawyers want the charge reduced to culpable homicide.
Steenkamp, a model and law graduate who had been dating Pistorius for just a few months, suffered gunshot wounds to her head, elbow and hip. In May, Sky News broadcast graphic leaked images of the blood-spattered bathroom where she was killed.
Police expect Monday’s procedural hearing to be postponed after the indictment is served. By then the prosecution and defence may also have finalised a start date for the trial, which is supposed to take place early next year.
The Johannesburg-born Paralympic champion known as the “Blade Runner” became an inspirational hero to millions as the first double amputee to compete against able-bodied competitors at the London Olympics last year.
His family said in June he had started training again for “mental and emotional equilibrium” after taking a break.
He is free pending trial on bail of one million South African Rand (€78,000).
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