Pistorius granted bail, will appeal conviction

Oscar Pistorius will remain free on bail until he is sentenced for murder in April and as he appeals his conviction, a Pretoria judge has ruled.

Judge Aubrey Ledwaba ordered Pistorius - the 29-year-old Paralympic champion convicted of shooting his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, through a bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013 - pay 10,000 rand (about $700) in bail, remain under electronic surveillance, surrender his passport and stay within 12.4 miles of the apparently comfortable Pretoria home where he has been under house arrest since he was paroled in October.

He will still be able to leave the premises between 7 a.m. and noon, as he has during his house arrest.

Pistorius - known for his emotional outbursts and for vomiting during his trial - stood quietly as Ledwaba announced the order.

After South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal overturned Pistorius’ conviction for culpable homicide - the equivalent of manslaughter - and found him guilty of the more serious crime of murder last week, prosecutors had sought more restrictive confinement.

Originally sentenced to five years, but paroled after just one, Pistorius now faces a minimum of 15 years in prison.

“We feel strongly about the fact that he needs monitoring, and should not leave the house at any time,” state prosecutor Gerri Nel said, as CNN reported.

After his sentencing for culpable homicide last year, Pistorius’s bail was set at 1 million rand (about $69,000).

Asked whether the former Olympian, known as “Blade Runner” for his artificial legs, could swing that now, Pistorius’s attorney had a simple answer.

“He doesn’t have that money,” Barry Roux said, as the Guardian reported.

Pistorius’ defense team also announced its plans to appeal the murder conviction to South Africa’s Constitutional Court. After Pistorius’s conviction was changed to murder, Ulrich Roux, a criminal attorney not affiliated with the athlete’s defense team, told the news channel ENCA that his chances of succeeding in that court were remote. Pistorius will have to show that his constitutional right to a fair trail was violated, and may make the argument that intense media scrutiny of his case played a factor in his conviction.

“I don’t think in my opinion his rights were infringed on at all but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an application,” said Roux.