Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius looks on ahead of his sentencing hearing at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, in this October 16, 2014 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

BLOEMFONTEIN - South Africa's top appeals court ruled on Thursday that paralympian Oscar Pistorius' conviction be scaled up to murder from culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013.

Last year a judge gave Pistorius a five-year jail sentence for "culpable homicide" of Steenkamp, but prosecutors argued that the "Blade Runner" should be convicted of murder.