The Constitutional Court has found that the Pretoria high court incorrectly formulated the test for putative private defence when it convicted a Unisa law student of murder for stabbing two police officers he believed were criminals out to harm him.

Liqhayiya Tuta was initially found guilty of stabbing the officers, who were in civilian clothes, when they tried to subdue him after a chase in the streets of Sunnyside, Pretoria, at about midnight in 2018.

Tuta appealed the life sentence he was given by the high court in Pretoria in 2019, arguing he acted in self-defence and was not aware at the time they were police officers and had mistaken them for criminals...