Pistorius’ brother facing charge in ’08 traffic death
Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG
The murder case involving Olympic star Oscar Pistorius took another unexpected turn Sunday with the news that his older brother, Carl, is himself facing charges for the death of a woman in a traffic accident.
Carl Pistorius faces 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 Sunday. The accident happened in Vanderbijlpark, south of Johannesburg. The charge of “culpable homicide” was dropped and then reinstated and will be challenged in court, the lawyer told The Associated Press.
It is the second time someone associated with the Pistorius case has been found to face a serious charge that has been dropped and then reinstated. It was revealed that the chief police investigator in the case is facing charges of seven counts of attempted murder for shooting at a vehicle with seven passengers. After the revelations, Hilton Botha was removed from the Pistorius investigation and a new chief detective was appointed Thursday.
To drop and then 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. “It is a practical procedure, a process that is there to assist both sides.”