Athlete Oscar Pistorius is not cleared of culpable homicide charges and can still spend time in jail.

The Week reported that although Judge Thokozile Masipa found Pistorius not guilty of murder charges under the law of South Africa, culpable homicide carries a sentence of 15 years and reports added that it does not provide minimum sentence for the crime.

Pistorius was charged with murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013.

Masipa, in her verdict said the prosecutors was unable to prove " beyond reasonable doubt," that he was guilty of murder.

Pistorius was also charged with two counts of discharging a gun in public, and illegal possession of the firearms, all other charges were dismissed except for one, possession of firearm in a restaurant.

The report said, when the judge read the verdict of culpable homicide, she was quoted as saying, "the accused acted negligently when he fired shots into the toilet door knowing that here was someone behind the door and that there was very little room to maneuver.

Masipa added, "a reasonable person," therefore in the position of the accused with similar disability, would have foreseen that possibility that whoever was behind the door, might be killed by the shots, and would have taken steps to avoid the consequences, and the accused in this matter failed to take those consequences."

 Yahoo News reported that sentencing on the guilty verdict of culpable homicide might be handed down in a few weeks.

In his defense, Pistorius stated in court that he thought that the person on the other side of the locked door was an intruder and at that time, he acted in fear and believed that he was protected him and Reeva against an intruder.

The controversial trial took a 6-month period and 41 days of testimony. The next step, according to Yahoo News is for the defense to argue for mitigation of sentence while the prosecution is expected to argue about imposing the full sentence on Pistorius.