TSHWANE — The defence in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius has been postponed because one of the assessors assisting the judge has been taken to hospital.
Judge Thokozile Masipa postponed proceedings for more than a week due to the illness of one of the legal assistants who has been sitting at her side throughout the trial, one of the most high-profile in South African history.
Oscar Pistorius had been expected to take the stand to testify how and why he shot dead his girlfriend, as defence lawyers open their case in the star Paralympian’s murder trial.
As the only surviving witness to the events inside his house in the early hours of February 14, 2013, Pistorius has the strongest word in his defence that he was in a loving relationship with Reeva Steenkamp and that her death was a tragic accident.
The 27-year-old has to explain why he fired four shots at the model and aspiring television actress through a locked toilet door, and undermine prosecutors’ argument her death was premeditated murder. It would have been the first time he speaks in public since the Valentine’s Day killing, besides pleading “not guilty, milady”, and the occasional “yes, milady” to Judge Thokozile Masipa during his trial.
Defence lawyer Barry Roux has read two almost identical affidavits on behalf of his client – one at his bail hearing last year, another at the start of the trial on March 3. — AAP
