The six time paralympic gold medalist, Oscar Pistorius has been released on bail, and has vowed to appeal against his murder conviction for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
The athlete’s legal team confirmed it will lodge an appeal with South Africa’s highest tribunal, the Constitutional Court, after the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled last week that his manslaughter conviction be upgraded.
He was released from jail in October to live under house arrest at his uncle’s house in Pretoria after serving one year of his five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide – the equivalent of manslaughter.
South African judges last week found Mr. Pistorius guilty of murder and overturned his earlier conviction on the lesser charge of culpable homicide for killing Steenkamp, a model and law graduate.
according to judge Aubrey Ledwaba:
The applicant is released on bail of 10,000 rand ($A950) and would remain under house arrest. Pistorius would be electronically monitored to track his location, but would be allowed to leave the house at set times with official permission.
The court will meet again on April 18 to seek an update on whether Pistorius’s appeal to the Constitutional Court, South Africa’s highest court, has been accepted.
