The National Prosecuting Authority has filed an application for leave to appeal Pistorius’ six-year sentence.
“We respectfully submit that the sentence of six years imprisonment, in all the circumstances, is disproportionate to the crime of murder committed,” it said.
The NPA said that the leniency of the sentence has resulted in an injustice and has the potential to bring the administration of justice into disrepute.
Three weeks ago, after Pistorius’s conviction was escalated from manslaughter to murder, Masipa said that the change in conviction had to bring a change in the sentence too.
She added that Pistorius was obviously remorseful and believed that his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was an intruder and that the sentence has to be proportionate.
“I am of the view that a long term of imprisonment would not serve justice in this case,” she said.
But the NPA does not agree that the sentence was “proportionate”.
“We hope that this appeal will also clarify further the principles of sentencing, particularly in crime categories for which there are prescribed minimum sentences ordained by legislation, notwithstanding the fact that a judicial officer has a discretion to deviate from the minimum sentence after considering compelling circumstances,” said the NPA.