Lawyers for jailed South African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius have launched a legal bid to prevent prosecutors from appealing against his acquittal on murder charges, BBC reports. Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled in December that prosecutors could appeal against the acquittal. She had sentenced Pistorius to five years in prison for the lesser charge of culpable homicide, or manslaughter. Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013. He said he mistook her for a burglar, while prosecutors argued that he shot her after a row at his upmarket home in the capital, Pretoria. The double amputee athlete was acquitted by Judge Masipa of both premeditated murder and the lesser murder charge of dolus eventualis, also known as common-law murder. In South African law, this charge applies if the accused knew they might kill someone but still went ahead with their course of action.