Pistorius to apply for bail in South African court on Tuesday

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Disgraced Olympic and Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius will appear in court on Tuesday to apply for bail following his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, the justice department said.

(Reuters)

"The bail application hearing for Oscar Pistorius has been set down for tomorrow at 9.30 am (0730 GMT) at the Pretoria High Court," the department said on Monday.

The future date for Pistorius' sentencing will also be announced on Tuesday, the department said. Pistorius, known as "Blade Runner" because of the carbon fibre prosthetic blades he used to race, faces a minimum 15-year jail sentence.

The Supreme Court last Thursday upgraded the 29-year-old athlete's sentence to murder from "culpable homicide", South Africa's equivalent of manslaughter, for which he had received a five-year sentence.

Pistorius was released from jail on Oct. 19 and had been meant to serve the rest of that five-year sentence under house arrest at his uncle's house in a wealthy suburb of the capital Pretoria.

The athlete killed Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013 after firing four shots through a locked toilet door. He said he mistook Steenkamp for a burglar, while prosecutors argued that he had intended to kill her.

(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by James Macharia and Gareth Jones)