Prosecutors are charging Oscar Pistorius, Paralympian double-amputee, with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend, famed model and law graduate, Reeva Steenkamp.
At the hearing, details emerged from both sides. Arguments from the prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, and the defense lawyer, Barry Roux, were presented. The magistrate ruled that Pistorius should face a charge under the Schedule 6, also known as premeditated murder.
Pistorius submitted an application for bail, but bail appears unlikely. Last week, the South African government news agency said that they intend to charge Pistorius with pre-meditated murder. The case was postponed to Feb. 19 in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, after a highly charged first appearance, according to the government news agency.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Nel, the prosecutor, told the court that Pistorius had pre-meditated the murder of his girlfriend because he got up, put his prosthetic legs on, and fired his gun through the bathroom door four times. Steenkamp suffered three shots. Pistorius then carried her downstairs.
Roux, Pistorius’s attorney, said that his client thought that his girlfriend was an intruder. He said that he intends to provide evidence of other cases where men have thought their wives or children were intruders, and shot them.
Steenkamp’s family will hold a private funeral ceremony in her hometown of Port Elizabeth on Tuesday, Feb. 19, according to the state news agency.
Pistorius has been held in a cell at Brooklyn police station in Pretoria since his arrest Thursday. He could face life imprisonment if found guilty.
