PRETORIA, Oct 21 (IANS): Oscar Pistorius has accepted the court�s justice that has sent him to prison for five years in the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, and his family is now on the path to move on, his uncle said on Tuesday.
About an hour and a half after Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison for killing Reeva Steenkamp, his family held a press conference outside a restaurant near the High Court in Pretoria, Independent Online reported.
Pistorius�s uncle, Arnold, said the media had shared the process with the family over the months.
He said the seasons had come and gone, and now a new season had started for the family.
He said it was a painful process for everyone involved and the family was entirely emotionally drained and exhausted.
Arnold said that the State had insisted on pushing for a premeditated murder conviction, not caring about the collateral damage it left in its path.
He believed that one of the most distressing parts of the trial was how the truth became totally irrelevant in trying to make murder stick.
�The court has now handed down judgment and sentence and we accept this,� he said.
According to Arnold, Pistorius will embrace the opportunity to pay back to society. After 20 months of relentless public scrutiny, he asked the media and general public �to let the family move forward in this process and give us some degree of dignity and privacy�.
As an uncle, he said he hoped Pistorius would start his own healing process as he walked the path of restoration.
Pistorius was also sentenced to three years for firing a pistol under a table at Tasha�s restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013.
Further, he was found not guilty of shooting through the open sunroof of a car in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012, and of illegal possession of ammunition.
Pistorius was taken to prison after the sentencing.
