Oscar Pistorius has been granted bail. Magistrate David Nair ruled that none of the factors which would necessitate refusing bail had been met and, as such, he was not in a position to refuse the request. Bail was set at R1,000,000 (approx. €85,000). The trial will commence at 8.30 am on 4 June.
Pistorius had spent the past week at a Pretoria police station as he awaited the ruling. When the verdict was read out the Olympian's family members called out “Yes!” and applauded. In the early stages of the proceedings, in particular as his statement was summarised by Magistrate Nair, Pistorius was visibly shaking and sobbing. At one point Nair asked Pistorius, “Are you OK there?”
Pistorius was given several conditions of bail, including that he cannot return to the estate or house where the shooting happened. Barry Roux, Pistorius’s lawyer, said “He doesn’t want to go back to the house.”
Pistorius must surrender all passports and firearms, and “refrain from using any prohibited substance and/or alcohol” while on bail.
Magistrate Nair ruled that the defence had not shown Pistorius was either a flight risk or a danger to the safety of others. The defence, Nair said, had also not put forward a reasonable case that his release on bail would cause a public outrage.
Nair spoke for over two hours in total and went through the testimony provided by Oscar Pistorius, Detective Hilton Botha (lead detective on the case) and the prosecution, before a lengthy explanation of bail laws and their relationship to the testimony provided to the court.
Nair commented that the prosecution had not put forward a case against Pistorius which was so strong that the accused would presume his only chance of avoiding a prison sentence would be to flee the country before trial.
Magistrate Nair criticised Detective Hilton Botha – the lead detective on the case who testified at the bail hearing – for his work on the case. He noted several failings on Botha’s part which weakened the state’s case. However, Nair made a clear statement that “Warrant Officer Botha is not the state case”.
He advised that the state would be better prepared at trial time, calling upon experts in their field, rather than Botha, who is not an expert in many of the areas he was required to testify on.
Much of the recounting of evidence, and Nair’s commentary on the case thus far, was positive from Pistorius’s point of view. However, Nair – who made it clear the issue of guilt was not his to rule on, but that of the trial judge – did raise certain serious concerns about Pistorius’s version of the death of Steenkamp.
Nair admitted he had “difficulty coming to terms with” several aspects of the defendants story, such as why Pistorius did not ascertain the location of Steenkamp when he heard the noise he presumed to be an intruder. Nair also questioned why Pistorius did not attempt to verify who was in the toilet before opening fire.
Magistrate Nair said he “had difficulty” with the defence’s claim that on the night of the shooting the accused and Steenkamp had slept on sides of the bed which were the opposite of their usual arrangement.
However, despite his criticisms of its content, Nair cited Pistorius’s detailed account of events, delivered to the court by a member of his legal team, as a contributing factor in his decision to award bail.
State prosecutors claim Pistorius is guilty of the premeditated murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in the early hours of Valentine ’s Day, at his home in Johannesburg.
The defence claims that Steenkamp’s death was a tragic accident and case of mistaken identity as Pistorius fired on her as he mistook her for an intruder in his home.
