South African prosecutors pressing a murder charge against Oscar Pistorius have secured a meeting with Apple officials in the US over accessing potentially crucial evidence on the double-amputee athlete's locked iPhone, they said.
Pistorius claimed he forgot the password for the mobile phone, one of a number found at his upscale villa after he shot dead girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14, 2013.
Investigators have been seeking help from Apple through the FBI since last year to get access to the phone, a spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority said. Investigators from South Africa would now meet with Apple officials on Thursday at the tech giant's headquarters in California, spokesman Nathi Mncube said.
Pistorius' trial starts Monday, giving both prosecutors and Pistorius' defence team just four days to analyse any information on the iPhone. Prosecutors would be obliged to also give any evidence they find to Pistorius' lawyers.
"It can only add on the evidence we already have," Mncube said in an interview with TV station eNCA.
"It cannot be prejudicial to our case. The people concerned, should the evidence be favourable to us, are the defence. Then we have a responsibility to make it available to them as soon as we have it so they can also prepare for the trial."
The prosecution maintains that Pistorius had a fight with Steenkamp before killing her, a cornerstone of its case, and information on the Olympian's phone may shed light on events before the pre-dawn shooting last Valentine's Day. Pistorius says he shot the model and reality TV star after mistaking her for a dangerous intruder.
South African prosecutors hope to have the information from the phone by late on Thursday, Mncube said, adding that they would make any evidence from the phone available to Pistorius' defence lawyers.
He wouldn't comment on what prosecutors might be looking for on the phone.
