A South African judge has rejected the state's appeal seeking a longer sentence for Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, who is serving a six-year term for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
Judge Thokozile Masipa said in the High Court in Johannesburg that she was not persuaded there was a "reasonable prospect of success on appeal".
"I grant the following order: the application for leave to appeal against the sentence is dismissed with costs," she said.
Prosecutors had previously stated they would appeal the six-year sentence, describing it as "shockingly too lenient".
Pistorius shot Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
At his sentencing in July, Judge Masipa listed mitigating factors for ordering Pistorius to serve less than half the minimum 15-year term for murder, including the athlete's claim he believed he was shooting an intruder.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued that the six-year sentence was flawed and that it should be appealed.
"Another court may find that this court misdirected itself," said Nel.
Judge Masipa was also the judge who had originally convicted Pistorius of the lesser charge of culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter, in 2014.
An appeals court upgraded his conviction to murder in December last year.
'Enough is enough', Pistorius' lawyers say
Pistorius's defence said it was an "insult" to suggest that the court's sentencing had been flawed and that it was time the case came to a close.
"Enough is enough. What does the state want?" defence lawyer Barry Roux said.
"This process has been exhausted beyond the point of exhaustion," he added, accusing the prosecution of sending Pistorius "like a ping pong ball between courts".
Pistorius, who pleaded not guilty at his high-profile trial, has always denied killing 29-year-old Steenkamp in a rage, saying he was trying to protect her.
The year before he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius — known as the Blade Runner — became the first double-amputee to race at Olympic level when he appeared at the London 2012 Games.
AFP