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Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Pistorius Bailed Ahead

The athlete's initial conviction of culpable homicide (or manslaughter in other countries) was overturned last week by the Supreme Court of Appeal, after five judges unanimously ruled that Judge Thokozile Masipa had made a judgement which was "fundamentally flawed".
With the courts about to go into Christmas recess and no new sentencing date for his murder conviction set, there was confusion about what would happen to Pistorius in the meantime - whether he would remain under house arrest at his uncle's home, in one of Pretoria's most exclusive neighbourhoods.
The runner was granted bail in March 2013, a month after he shot Reeva dead on Valentine's Day at their home, and in October this year, he was released from jail after serving 12 months of his five-year sentence behind bars.
This time, prosecutors emphasised that Pistorius may pose a higher flight risk because he now faces a further, lengthier spell in jail. But they have agreed that electronic monitoring would provide some security with regards to his whereabouts.
Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba said he did not find Pistorius to be a flight risk but one of the conditions of his bail is that he hand over any passports and will not be allowed to apply for any further passports or travel documents until the case has been dealt with.
Other conditions include that he will be under house arrest and electronically monitored. He will be allowed to leave the house between 7am and midday but will only be allowed to travel within a 20km radius, after the judge said it was not "in the interests of justice" to ban him completely from leaving the house.
Sky's Special Correspondent Alex Crawford was in court and said Pistorius appeared "extremely relaxed".
She added: "He was smiling a lot, laughing and joking with his friends and the defence team."
It's understood Pistorius intends to go to the Constitutional Court as a final resort against his new murder conviction and both sides have agreed to return to court on 18 April for an update on whether the court will hear the appeal.
If leave is not granted to appeal, a date will be set at the High Court for sentencing on the murder conviction.
Any appeal could take many months and run well over a million rand and it is not clear who would pay for this, as Pistorius's lawyer told the court the athlete was struggling financially and bail was set at 10,000 rand.
The 29-year-old now faces a minimum sentence of 15 years, but Ms Steenkamp said: "I really don't care how long it is, as long as he pays for what he's done and takes responsibility for what happened."
Pistorius has always insisted he shot his girlfriend dead after mistaking her for an intruder, but the appeal panel said it was irrelevant who was behind his toilet door.
The judges said his experience with firearms meant he should have been aware that death was an inevitability after firing four times into such a confined area, which had left Reeva Steenkamp with "nowhere to hide".
Sentencing, when a date is decided upon, will be conducted by Judge Masipa - even though her original judgement was overturned on appeal.
She has been given this responsibility as she presided over the original trial and is familiar with the intricacies of the case, which went on for months.

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