Oscar Pistorius will know today if Judge Thokozile Masipa agrees with prosecutors that his conviction and subsequent sentence of negligence for the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, was wrong and too lenient.
In October, Pistorius was sentenced to five years' imprisonment after he was found guilty of culpable homicide. He received another three years' imprisonment for shooting a firearm in Tashas Restaurant in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg. That sentence was suspended for five years.
Prosecutors in their appeal papers described the sentences as "shockingly light and inappropriate" and have called for a harsher sentence. The prosecution believes that Pistorius deliberately murdered Steenkamp.
Nathi Mncube, spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority , said at the time that the appeal on conviction was based on the question of law.
The NPA believed Masipa should have found Pistorius guilty of murder dolus eventualis - the intention to shoot and kill whoever was behind his locked toilet door.
Pistorius in his defence maintained that he mistook her for an intruder.
In their answering papers to today's appeal, Pistorius's lawyer, Barry Roux said last month that the state's appeal should be dismissed, and that it was trying to appeal factual findings rather than legal findings.
Pistorius is due to be released from prison in April after serving a sixth of his sentence.
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