PRETORIA: A South African court yesterday cleared Oscar Pistorius for international travel after the Paralympian sprint star, charged with murdering his murdering his girlfriend, challenged his stringent bail terms.
Pistorius, 26, had appealed against a raft of conditions including the confiscation of his passport that he said were unfair and unwarranted.
“I find that the magistrate’s decision not to grant the appellant his passport to travel abroad was wrong,” Judge Bert Bam told the High Court in Pretoria.
The double amputee — who faces trial later this year over the Valentine’s Day killing of his model girlfriend Reena Steenkamp — was not in court for the appeal, which was opposed by the state.
The judge also ruled that Pistorius could return to his upmarket Pretoria home where Steenkamp was shot dead in the early hours of Feb. 14. He claims he mistook her for an intruder — although the state maintains that the shooting was premeditated murder.
“Why would this athlete go to a country without extradition and go and hide?” lawyer Barry Roux had told the court, saying the bail terms were tantamount to “house arrest” and that Pistorius needed to take part in races abroad to earn a living.
S. Africa court clears Pistorius for travel
