Pretoria Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair has ruled that paralympian Oscar Pistorius be released on bail.
Going through evidence presented before court by the defence as well as the State, Nair says the State didn’t seek to seriously argue that Pistorius is a flight risk, thus noting that he cannot establish that the accused is a flight risk.
According to Nair, based on evidence presented that all his immovable assets as well as the majority of his friends and family are in the country, Pistorius cannot duck and dive from the justice system.
Touching on the issue of the initial investigating officer, Hilton Botha, Nair says Botha is not necessarily the most highly qualified officer to be assigned to such a case, but rather, he was the first police official on the scene.
Thus, Botha could not be deemed to be the State’s case as the State’s case is made up of experts.
As part of his assessments of evidence and events presented before him, Nair says he has difficulty in understanding why the accused didn’t verify where the deceased was before shooting; he didn’t understand why the accused would risk in exposing himself to danger by approaching the bathroom which he alleges he suspected the intruder was in.
According to Nair, he fails to understand that if there was danger posed by the alleged intruder, why did the deceased opt not to flee through the bedroom door instead of locking herself up in the bathroom.
With regards to Pistorius, Nair says because of previous and separate incidents, he agrees to some extent that Pistorius poses danger to society.
But he says it hasn’t been established fully if the accused has propensity to commit violence, although he (Nair) agrees that Pistorius has shown levels of aggression before.
Just before granting bail to Pistorius, Nair said he didn’t believe it was proved that Pistorius could interfere with witnesses.
Pistorius, who wept as Nair went through a summary of evidence presented to the court, will be charged with premeditated murder when the case goes to trial.
SABC
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