South Africa: Oscar Pistorius Granted Bail After Murder Conviction

South African court on Tuesday granted bail to paralympian Oscar Pistorius after he was convicted of murder for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013, with the judge saying the athlete did not pose a flight risk.

Pistorius faces a minimum 15-year jail sentence.

It would be recalled that the Supreme Court last Thursday upgraded the 29-year-old athlete's sentence to murder from "culpable homicide", South Africa's equivalent of manslaughter, for which he had received a five-year sentence.


Pistorius was released from jail on Oct. 19 and had been meant to serve the rest of that five-year sentence under house arrest at his uncle's house in a wealthy suburb of the capital Pretoria.

He is expected not to travel further than a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius outside of his uncle's mansion in a Pretoria suburb. He must also hand over his passport to the police, the judge said.