Too famous to be flight risk, court allows 'Blade Runner' out on bail
Source: Agencies |
February 23, 2013, Saturday
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Print Edition
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A SOUTH African court granted Oscar Pistorius bail yesterday after his lawyers argued the "Blade Runner" was too famous to pose a flight risk.
The decision by Magistrate Desmond Nair drew cheers from the athlete's family and supporters. Pistorius, charged with the murder of his girlfriend, appeared unmoved.
The court set bail at 1 million rand (US$113,000) and postponed the case until June 4. Pistorius was ordered to hand over firearms and passports, avoid his home and all witnesses in the case, report to police twice a week and not to drink alcohol.
The decision followed a week of dramatic testimony about how the athlete shot Reeva Steenkamp at his luxury home near Pretoria in the early hours of February 14.
Prosecutors said Pistorius, 26, committed premeditated murder when he fired four shots into a locked bathroom door, hitting his girlfriend cowering on the other side. Steenkamp, 29, suffered gunshot wounds to her head, hip and arm.
Pistorius' defense team said the killing was a tragic mistake, with the athlete having mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder. They said he was too famous to pose a flight risk and deserved bail to prepare for a case that has drawn worldwide attention.
"He can never go anywhere unnoticed," his lawyer Barry Roux told the court.
The Olympic and Paralympic star faces life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors portrayed him as a cold-blooded killer.
"You cannot put yourself in the deceased's position. It must have been terrifying. It was not one shot. It was four shots," prosecutor Gerrie Nel said yesterday.
In an affidavit read out in court, Pistorius said he had been "deeply in love" with Steenkamp, and Roux said his client had no motive for the killing.
Pistorius contends he was acting in self-defense after mistaking Steenkamp for an intruder, and feeling vulnerable because he was unable to attach his prosthetic limbs in time to confront the perceived threat.
He said he grabbed a 9mm pistol from under his bed and went into the bathroom. He said he fired into the locked door of the toilet, which adjoined the bathroom, in a blind panic in the mistaken belief the intruder was lurking inside.
Witnesses said they heard gunshots and screams from the athlete's home in an upscale gated community near Pretoria. The community is surrounded by 3-meter high stone walls and topped with an electric fence.
In a magazine interview a week before her death, and published yesterday, Steenkamp, a law graduate and model, spoke about her three-month-old relationship with Pistorius.
"I absolutely adore Oscar. I respect and admire him so much," she told celebrity gossip magazine Heat. "I don't want anything to come in the way of his career."
Police pulled their lead detective off the case on Thursday after it was revealed he was facing attempted murder charges for shooting at a minibus.
The arrest of Pistorius last week shocked those who had watched in awe last year as he reached the semifinal of the 400 meters at the London Olympics.
The impact had been greatest in sports-mad South Africa, where Pistorius was seen as a rare hero who commanded respect from both black and white people, transcending the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.
The decision by Magistrate Desmond Nair drew cheers from the athlete's family and supporters. Pistorius, charged with the murder of his girlfriend, appeared unmoved.
The court set bail at 1 million rand (US$113,000) and postponed the case until June 4. Pistorius was ordered to hand over firearms and passports, avoid his home and all witnesses in the case, report to police twice a week and not to drink alcohol.
The decision followed a week of dramatic testimony about how the athlete shot Reeva Steenkamp at his luxury home near Pretoria in the early hours of February 14.
Prosecutors said Pistorius, 26, committed premeditated murder when he fired four shots into a locked bathroom door, hitting his girlfriend cowering on the other side. Steenkamp, 29, suffered gunshot wounds to her head, hip and arm.
Pistorius' defense team said the killing was a tragic mistake, with the athlete having mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder. They said he was too famous to pose a flight risk and deserved bail to prepare for a case that has drawn worldwide attention.
"He can never go anywhere unnoticed," his lawyer Barry Roux told the court.
The Olympic and Paralympic star faces life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors portrayed him as a cold-blooded killer.
"You cannot put yourself in the deceased's position. It must have been terrifying. It was not one shot. It was four shots," prosecutor Gerrie Nel said yesterday.
In an affidavit read out in court, Pistorius said he had been "deeply in love" with Steenkamp, and Roux said his client had no motive for the killing.
Pistorius contends he was acting in self-defense after mistaking Steenkamp for an intruder, and feeling vulnerable because he was unable to attach his prosthetic limbs in time to confront the perceived threat.
He said he grabbed a 9mm pistol from under his bed and went into the bathroom. He said he fired into the locked door of the toilet, which adjoined the bathroom, in a blind panic in the mistaken belief the intruder was lurking inside.
Witnesses said they heard gunshots and screams from the athlete's home in an upscale gated community near Pretoria. The community is surrounded by 3-meter high stone walls and topped with an electric fence.
In a magazine interview a week before her death, and published yesterday, Steenkamp, a law graduate and model, spoke about her three-month-old relationship with Pistorius.
"I absolutely adore Oscar. I respect and admire him so much," she told celebrity gossip magazine Heat. "I don't want anything to come in the way of his career."
Police pulled their lead detective off the case on Thursday after it was revealed he was facing attempted murder charges for shooting at a minibus.
The arrest of Pistorius last week shocked those who had watched in awe last year as he reached the semifinal of the 400 meters at the London Olympics.
The impact had been greatest in sports-mad South Africa, where Pistorius was seen as a rare hero who commanded respect from both black and white people, transcending the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.
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