Pistorius witness ‘too close’ to be credible

Prosecutors have claimed the evidence of a key defence witness in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial is not credible.

The trial resumed with the questioning of Professor Wayne Derman, the doctor for the South African Paralympic team.

Professor Derman testified last week that Pistorius was vulnerable, stressed and would have been unable to flee because of his disability.

But prosecutor Gerrie Nel put it to the court on Monday that Professor Derman was close to Pistorius, travelled the world with him and therefore could not be objective.

“You don’t want to give an answer that will not benefit the accused,” said Mr Nel.

The witness responded: “I have attempted to come to court to give as objective evidence as I can – I do not think I am biased.”

The prosecutor argued that even if the physician’s analysis was correct, and “hyper vigilance” caused Pistorius to shoot Reeva Steenkamp, the Paralympian was a “danger to society”.

Mr. Nel did not mention explicitly the video broadcast on Australian TV that shows Pistorius re-enacting the night he shot his girlfriend.

The defence commissioned the video but chose not to use it as part of their case – and they are furious it has been broadcast.

The footage shows Pistorius running on his stumps and miming shooting – and though Mr Nel did not refer to it in court, he suggested Professor Derman’s claims about the defendant’s lack of mobility were not accurate.

The physician maintained that Pistorius could not flee “as you or I” could – but conceded under questioning that fleeing to another room would have been an “option”.

Professor Derman also admitted that having a gun made the athlete “less vulnerable” on the night.

Sky’s Emma Hurd was in court and said the video broadcast in Australia was an “elephant in the room”.

“Gerrie Nel has asked Professor Derman about the level of movement Pistorius would have had,” she said.

“The video has not been mentioned explicitly but has been hinted at, so we’re not expecting it to be introduced as evidence.”

Pistorius, who is on trial for premeditated murder, denies deliberately killing his girlfriend, claiming he mistook her for an intruder.

He faces between 25 years and life in prison if found guilty.

The trial has been adjourned until Tuesday morning, when the defence is expected to close its case.

Israel launches new air strikes on Gaza Strip

Israel has carried out more air strikes on the Gaza Strip, following dozens of rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

At least 14 Palestinians, including a woman and two children, were reportedly hurt in the strikes.

Hamas earlier said its members fired rockets to respond to “Zionist aggression”, after accusing Israel of killing five of its fighters.

Israel denied the claim, but said 1,500 reservists had been called up.

Tension has spiked in recent days over the murders of three young Israelis and a Palestinian teenager.

The Israeli military said its offensive was part of a campaign, targeting Hamas militants.

The military also deployed more troops near the Gaza border, reports say. However, the Israeli cabinet stopped short of ordering a ground operation for now.

Towns within 40km (24 miles) of the enclave were instructed by the central authorities to close schools and summer camps.

The army said that more rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza.

Palestinian medical and security sources said that nine of the 14 Palestinians were injured when one of the pre-dawn Israeli strikes hit a house of a Hamas activist in the southern town of Khan Younis.

Hamas militants reportedly warned they would enlarge the radius of their targets if Israel continued with the air strikes.

A Hamas spokesman had earlier accused Israel of killing the five militants during Sunday’s air strikes and called it a “grave escalation”.

He promised Israel would “pay a tremendous price”.

But Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner denied the claims, saying the men had died on Sunday in a tunnel that had been bombarded by Israel on Thursday.

He said the militants went into the tunnel to assess the damage from the air strike and meddled with some explosives, which were apparently detonated accidentally.