A South African court granted bail on Friday to Oscar Pistorius, charged with the murder of his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, after his lawyers argued the “Blade Runner” was too famous to flee justice.

The decision by Magistrate Desmond Nair drew cheers from the Paralympics star’s family and supporters. Pistorius himself was unmoved, in marked contrast to the rest of the week-long hearing when he repeatedly broke down in tears.

Nair set bail at 1 million rand ($113,000) and postponed the case until June 4. Pistorius would be released only when the court receives 100,000 rand in cash, he added.

Less than an hour later, a silver Land Rover believed to be carrying Pistorius left the court compound and sped off through the capital, pursued by members of the media on motorcycles.

Pistorius, 26, was also ordered to hand over firearms and his two South African passports, avoid his home and all witnesses in the case, report to a police station twice a week and to abstain from drinking alcohol.

The decision followed a week of dramatic testimony about how the athlete shot dead model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp at his luxury home near Pretoria in the early hours of February 14.

Prosecutors said Pistorius committed premeditated murder when he fired four shots into a locked toilet door, hitting his girlfriend cowering on the other side. Steenkamp, 29, suffered gunshot wounds to her head, hip and arm.

Pistorius said the killing was a tragic mistake, saying he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder – a possibility in crime-ridden South Africa – and opened fire in a blind panic.

However, in delivering his nearly two-hour bail ruling, Nair said there were a number of “improbabilities” in Pistorius’s version of events, read out to the court in an affidavit by his lawyer, Barry Roux.

“I have difficulty in appreciating why the accused would not seek to ascertain who exactly was in the toilet,” Nair said. “I also have difficulty in appreciating why the deceased would not have screamed back from the toilet.”

By local standards, the bail conditions are onerous but it remains to be seen if they appease opposition to the decision from groups campaigning against the violence against women that is endemic in South Africa.

“We are saddened because women are being killed in this country,” said Jacqui Mofokeng, a spokeswoman for the ruling African National Congress’ Women’s League, whose members stood outside the court this week with banners saying “Rot in jail”.

TO FAMOUS TO RUN

However, Nair said he was ultimately making his decision in the “interests of justice” and that the prosecution, who suffered a setback when the lead investigator withered under cross-examination by Roux, had failed to show Pistorius was either a flight risk or a threat to the public.

Roux stressed that the Olympic and Paralympic runner’s global fame made it impossible for him to evade justice by skipping bail and leaving the country.

“He can never go anywhere unnoticed,” Roux told the court.

Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated in infancy forcing him to race on carbon fiber “blades”, faces life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder.

Prosecutors had portrayed him as a cold-blooded killer and said they were confident that their case, which will have to rely heavily on forensics, would stand up to scrutiny at a full trial.

“We are going to make sure that we get enough evidence to get through this case during trial time,” a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority told reporters.

In court, lead prosecutor Gerrie Nel was scornful of Pistorius’s inability to contain his emotions. “I shoot and I think my career is over and I cry. I come to court and I cry because I feel sorry for myself,” Nel said.

“DEEPLY IN LOVE”

In his affidavit, Pistorius said he was “deeply in love” with Steenkamp, and Roux said his client had no motive for the killing.

Pistorius contends he reached for a 9-mm pistol under his bed because he felt particularly vulnerable without his prosthetic limbs.

According to police, witnesses heard gunshots and screams from the athlete’s home. The community is surrounded by 3-m- (yard-) high stone walls and topped with an electric fence.

In a magazine interview a week before her death, published on Friday, Steenkamp spoke about her three-month-old relationship with Pistorius.

“I absolutely adore Oscar. I respect and admire him so much,” she told celebrity gossip magazine Heat. “I don’t want anything to come in the way of his career.”

Police pulled their lead detective off the case on Thursday after it was revealed he himself faces attempted murder charges for shooting at a minibus. He has been replaced by South Africa’s top detective.

The arrest of Pistorius last week shocked those who had watched in awe last year as he reached the semi-final of the 400 meters race in the London Olympics.

The impact has been greatest in South Africa, where Pistorius was seen as a rare hero who commanded respect from both black and white people, transcending the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.

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“Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius put on his artificial legs and walked across his bedroom before firing four shots through a locked bathroom door, killing his cowering girlfriend in cold blood, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Reeva Steenkamp, a 30-year-old law graduate and model, died after being hit by three rounds from a 9-mm pistol, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.

Pistorius, 26, wept uncontrollably in court as Nel outlined details of a shooting that has stunned South Africa and the millions around the world who saw the double amputee’s track glory as the ultimate tale of triumph over adversity.

Later, in an affidavit read out by defense lawyer Barry Roux, Pistorius said he had been “deeply in love” with Steenkamp, whom he had been dating since November, and had no intention of killing her.

Having had previous death threats, Pistorius said he slept with a 9-mm pistol under his bed in his plush Pretoria home in the heart of a well-secured gated community.

He and Steenkamp went to sleep on Wednesday night – the eve of Valentine’s Day – shortly after 10 p.m., he said.

However, in the middle of the night, he awoke in pitch darkness and thought an intruder had climbed through the window of his bathroom, Pistorius said.

He climbed out of bed without putting on his prosthetic legs and went towards the closed bathroom door, not realizing Steenkamp was behind it, he said. He then fired several shots into the door, before shouting to Steenkamp to call the police.

Realizing she was not in bed, he grabbed a cricket bat to beat down the bathroom door and found her slumped on the floor.

“I am absolutely mortified at the death of my beloved Reeva,” he said in the affidavit. As Roux read the statement, Pistorius was crying uncontrollably, to the point magistrate Desmond Nair had to halt proceedings for several minutes.

“You need to concentrate on what’s going on,” he told him.

“AN ANGEL”

Nearly 1,000 km (600 miles) away, on South Africa’s windswept southern coast, scores of mourners gathered in the city of Port Elizabeth for Steenkamp’s funeral. Amid the grief, there was little sympathy for Pistorius.

“She was an angel. She was so soft, so innocent. Such a lovely person. It’s just sad that this could happen to somebody so good,” said Gavin Venter, an ex-jockey who worked for Steenkamp’s father.

“I’m disgusted with what he did. He must be dealt with harshly,” he added, shortly before Steenkamp’s cremation in the windswept Victoria Park Crematorium.

“Without a doubt he’s a danger to the public. He’ll be a danger to witnesses. He must stay in jail.”

The case has drawn further attention to endemic violence against women in South Africa after the gang-rape, mutilation and murder of a 17-year-old near Cape Town this month.

Members of the Women’s League of the ruling African National Congress protested outside the Pretoria central magistrates court, waving placards saying: “No Bail for Pistorius” and “Rot in jail”.

Before Pistorius’ dramatic testimony, Nel, the lead prosecutor at the hearing, painted a picture of premeditated killing – a crime that carries a life sentence in South Africa.

“If I arm myself, walk a distance and murder a person, that is premeditated,” he said. “The door is closed. There is no doubt. I walk seven meters and I kill.”

“The motive is ‘I want to kill’. That’s it,” he added. “This deceased was in a 1.4 by 1.14 meter little room. She could go nowhere. It must have been horrific.”

NIKE DROPS PISTORIUS

The arrest of Pistorius stunned the millions who had watched in awe last year as the Olympic and Paralympic sprinter reached the semi-final of the 400 meters in the London Olympics, running on high-technology carbon fiber ‘blades’.

But the impact has been greatest in sports-mad South Africa, where Pistorius was seen as a rare hero who had transcended the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.

His endorsements and sponsorships, which include sportswear giant Nike, British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler, are thought to be worth as much as $2 million a year.

In his affidavit, Pistorius said he earned 5.6 million rand ($630,500) a year, and owned properties worth nearly $1 million.

Nike said on Monday it had dropped Pistorius from any future advertising campaigns. Other sponsors have said they will make no decisions until the legal process has run its course.

Pistorius has cancelled scheduled track appearances in Australia, Brazil and Britain in the coming months to focus on his attempt to clear his name.

Born without a fibula in either leg, Pistorius had his lower legs amputated as an 11-month-old baby but became the highest-profile athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games.

Dressed in a dark suit, Pistorius arrived at the court in a police car shortly before 7 a.m. (0500 GMT). Proceedings were delayed as more than 100 journalists from around the world jostled to get into the dimly lit, brick-face courtroom.

After the hour-long private ceremony in the cream-colored hill-top church in Port Elizabeth, Steenkamp’s brother Adam and uncle Mike, fighting back tears, spoke briefly to reporters.

“There’s a space missing inside all the people that she knew that can’t be filled again,” Adam Steenkamp said. “We are going to keep all the positive things that we remember and know about my sister. We will miss her.”

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