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Pretoria – Oscar Pistorius plans to sell the upmarket Pretoria house where he shot dead his girlfriend last year to cover the legal fees for his murder trial, his lawyer said on Thursday. “It has become necessary to sell Mr Pistorius’s home in the Silver Woods Country Estate in Pretoria in order for him to raise the necessary funds to cover his increasing legal costs,” the 27-year-old’s lawyer Brian Webber said in a statement.
Similar properties in the area sell for about R4m.
“This is due to the unexpected extension of the trial beyond the initial three-week period for which it was originally set down.”
The Paralympic athlete has been paying his own legal fees since he shot dead Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year, according to the statement.
The costs – reportedly as high as about R98,000 a day — are said to include at least three full-time lawyers in court, ballistics and forensics experts as well as an American crime scene reconstruction company.
Since the shooting, Pistorius has been living at his uncle’s house in Pretoria.
The authorities turned the runner’s home in back over to him over a year ago and he had planned to keep it sealed until the trial finished.
“Mr Pistorius has never returned to his home in Silver Woods since the tragedy and… cannot contemplate ever returning to live there again.”
Prosecutors have charged the double-amputee sprinter with intentionally killing Steenkamp, 29, and are expected to wrap up their case early next week.
Pistorius insists he shot the model through a toilet door after mistaking her for an intruder.
The trial resumes on Monday. — AFP
Online Reporter