Oscar Pistorius was released from custody after winning the right to avoid imprisonment until his trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a South African court decided on Friday.
A four-day hearing culminated on Friday with shouts of "Yes!" when chief magistrate Desmond Nair announced he was granting the Blade Runner bail. Pistorius, who kept his head bowed when Nair announced his ruling, was ordered to post $1 million South African Rand – $112,771 U.S. dollars – as surety and surrender his passport to prevent him from leaving the country.
Although Pistorius still faces charges of premeditated murder and could receive a life sentence, this outcome after four days of testimony is a major victory for the 26-year-old and his legal team.
Among the stipulations of his bail, Pistorius was also ordered to surrender all his firearms, must appear at Brooklyn Police Station (where he had been held) every Monday and Friday and is not allowed to drink alcohol.
Nair stated he did not believe Pistorius to be a flight risk. As part of his summation that lasted nearly two hours on Friday, he highlighted several blunders made during the police investigation led by Hilton Botha, who was removed from the case Thursday after it emerged he was himself accused of seven counts of attempted murder. The blunders included:
• A failure to check proper phone records
• A possibility he contaminated crime scene evidence
• A failure to further investigate allegations of prior Pistorius aggression
• Blunders on the description of the substance found at the home
• A failure to seize evidence pertaining to offshore accounts
The bail ruling opens the possibility that Pistorius could return to athletic training, with his running coach Ampie Loew insisting he would like to see the 400-meter star back in training as early as Monday as a means to shifting his mind onto more positive things than the bloody events of Valentine's Day morning and the fatal shooting of Steenkamp.
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