The murder trial of Oscar Pistorius is due to resume in South Africa on Monday with the start of the defence case. The athlete is set to take the stand this week to tell the court how and why he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Prosecutors say he killed her in February 2013 after an argument. He denies shooting her deliberately, saying he mistook her for an intruder.
The trial in Pretoria was postponed for a week after one of the assessors assisting the judge fell ill.
Under South African law, there is no jury system and two assessors, normally lawyers or retired magistrates, help the judge reach a decision in serious cases.
The trial has already heard 15 days of prosecution-led testimony, which has relied on accounts from neighbours and specialist ballistics experts, as well as forensic and mobile phone evidence.
One neighbour, Michelle Burger, told the court she was awoken by a woman's "terrible screams" followed by gun shots.
This could be a decisive week for Mr Pistorius, says the BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding.
No comments:
Post a Comment