South African prosecutors have announced they will appeal against the verdict and five year jail sentence handed down to the star athlete Oscar Pistorius.
South African Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius is led to a prison van after his sentencing in Pretoria. Photo: Reuters
They believe he should have been convicted of murder, rather than the lesser crime of culpable homicide, over the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Last week, Pistorius began serving his five-year prison sentence, although he could be out in 10 months.
"The prosecutors are now preparing the necessary papers in order to be able to file within the next few days," Nathi Mncube from the National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement.
The athlete was also given a three-year suspended sentence for firing a gun in a restaurant.
Pistorius was charged by the prosecution with the pre-meditated murder of Ms Steenkamp, a model and law graduate.
He was acquitted of this and the lesser murder charge of dolus eventualis.
In South African law, this charge - also known as common-law murder - applies if the accused knew they might kill someone but still went ahead with their course of action.
The BBC reports that the prosecution's grounds for appeal may lie with how the judge interpreted dolus eventualis.
The judge's critics have argued that dolus eventualis includes the possibility of meaning to kill one person and ending up killing another.
Pistorius said he shot dead Ms Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day last year by mistake, fearing there was an intruder in the house.
On Sunday, Ms Steenkamp's mother June would not say whether the family would support a state appeal.
