Carl Pistorius, the brother of Para Olympian Oscar who is involved in a murder case, faces his own legal troubles. This stems from a charge of unlawful, negligent killing for a 2008 road death, "in which a woman motorcyclist sadly lost her life," Kenneth Oldwage, the Pistorius family lawyer said on Sunday. The accident occurred in Vanderbijlpark, south of Johannesburg. The charge of "culpable homicide" was dropped, then reinstated and will be challenged in court, the lawyer told the Associated Press.
This is the second person associated with the Oscar Pistorius case - in this case the defendant's own brother- who has been found to face a serious charge that was dropped and now reinstated. It was revealed that the chief police investigator, Hilton Botha, is facing seven counts of attempted murder for shooting at a vehicle with seven passengers. He has since been removed from the investigation and a new chief detective was appointed on Tuesday.
To drop and hen reinstate charges is "not uncommon in South African criminal law. The law specifically makes provision to allow charges to be dropped and then to be reinstated as a result of further investigations," said Jacob van Garderen, director of Lawyers for Human Rights.
As for Oscar Pistorius, he was released on bail Friday, and his trial will resume later this year. The one time famed Para Olympian was charged with the premeditated murder for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. His legal team has argued he accidentally killed her, opening fire after mistaking her for an intruder in his home.
His brother's legal troubles has prompted reaction from resident in Johannesburg, including Jim Plester who said, ''It's also doubly sad because it's involved with Oscar and his brother and all the family - so they have double sort of trouble," said Johannesburg resident
Jim Plester. Lawyer Oldwage said that ''Carl deeply regrets the accident" and that a blood test showed he was not drunk at the time.
