Malawi suspends all government foreign trips
Reuters (File photo) / Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp in 2013
A South African court has increased Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius’s jail sentence for killing his girlfriend to 13 years and five months.
Prosecutors had argued that the six-year term for murdering Reeva Steenkamp was too short.
The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled his sentence be increased to 15 years, less time already served.
Pistorius claimed he shot dead Ms Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013 after mistaking her for a burglar.
The lower court had justified deviating from the prescribed 15-year sentence by citing mitigating circumstances such as rehabilitation and remorse.
It said they outweighed aggravating factors such as his failure to fire a warning shot.
He was initially given a five-year term for manslaughter in 2014, but was found guilty of murder on appeal in 2015.
Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp four times through a locked toilet door at his home in the capital Pretoria.
Previously, the six-time Paralympic gold medallist had made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012 in London, running on prosthetic “blades”.
He had his legs amputated below the knee as a baby.
Rise and fall of Oscar Pistorius
August 2012: Competes in London Olympics and Paralympics, where he won a gold medal
February 2013: Shoots dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp
March 2014: Trial begins
September 2014: Judge finds Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide
October 2014: Begins five-year sentence
October 2015: Transferred to house arrest
December 2015: Appeal court changes verdict to murder
July 2016: Sentenced to six years in jail for murder
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