Oscar Pistorius to Be Released on Bail
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Bryn Lennon/Getty Images(PRETORIA, South Africa) — Oscar Pistorius, the Olympian accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day, will be released on bail, a South African magistrate ruled on Friday.
In reading his lengthy decision, Magistrate Desmond Nair said, “The issue before me is whether the accused, being who is and the assets he has [here], would seek to duck and dive all over the world.”
He concluded, “I cannot find that he is a flight risk.”
Nair did not immediately announce the bail amount the 26-year-old athlete will have to pay.
The fourth and final day of Pistorius’ bail hearing opened with arguments from the prosecution that the runner’s version of events is improbable and the defense countering that Pistorius had no intent to kill Steenkamp.
Pistorius, who gained global acclaim for racing at the 2012 London Olympics, shot his model girlfriend through a closed bathroom. He says he killed Steenkamp accidentally, but prosecutors allege that he took a moment to put on his prosthetic legs, indicating that he thought out and planned to kill Steenkamp when he shot her three times through a bathroom door.
Pistorius sobbed Friday in court. Barry Roux, his defense attorney, said the prosecution has misinterpreted the assigning of intent — meaning that the runner’s intent to shoot at a supposed intruder in his home cannot be transferred to someone else who was shot — in this case, Steenkamp.
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