Pretoria, Dec 8 (IANS) A South African court on Tuesday granted Paralympian Oscar Pistorius bail as he awaits sentencing after being convicted of murder for killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Judges of the high court in Pretoria changed his manslaughter conviction to murder on December 3, BBC reported. Pistorius, 29, was convicted at the Pretoria High Court in October 2014 of a culpable homicide of Steenkamp, whom he said he allegedly mistook for an intruder at his Pretoria home on Valentine's Day 2013.
In his bail affidavit, he said he had no income. During the hearing, his lawyer said he was only able to pay a sum of 10,000 rands ($700) for his bail.
He now faces a minimum 15-year jail sentence for Steenkamp's murder.
The sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 18, 2016.
The athlete would also appeal against his murder conviction in the Constitutional Court, his lawyer said.
Last week, South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein accepted prosecution arguments and ruled that the lower court did not correctly apply the concept of "dolus eventualis" - whether Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions.
The ruling said that having armed himself with a high-calibre weapon, Pistorius must have foreseen that whoever was behind the door might die, especially given his firearms training.
Pistorius can remain under house arrest at his uncle's home until sentencing next year, and will be electronically tagged. He also has to hand over his passport.
He will be able to leave the house between 7.00 a.m. and midday, but will only be able to move within a 20 km radius.
He is currently under house arrest after he was released from prison on October 19 under "correctional supervision", having served a sixth of his original five-year sentence.
