Oscar Pistorius and why I just can't get my head round South African justice.

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It's sobering to remember that this time last year - roundabouts - we were all waiting to see what the verdict and punishment would be in Oscar Pistorius' court case. So little time has passed and already he's out of prison and under 'house arrest' at his uncle's house. Yet at the same time as he's settling in and putting the discomfort of prison life behind him, there's apparently an appeal going through the judicial system to reconsider his case as murder instead of manslaughter. This appeal could see him back in prison for a lot longer than his original 5 year sentence. I was a massive fan of Oscar. He was brave, determined, cute (yes, I admit it) and fought to be taken seriously as an athlete and not just a 'para'-athlete. I watched and cheered as he fought to get into the Olympics and shook my head in disappointment when he got beaten in the paralympics and blamed it on his opponent having artificially long legs. The golden boy was a little bit tarnished but nothing prepared us for him shooting dead his girlfriend in his bathroom. I'm one of the most anti-gun people I know and I just couldn't accept that it would have been 'OK' if the person in the bathroom had been an intruder. Since the defense seemed to be based on mistaken identity, I wasn't buying it. In my book it's not OK to shoot your girlfriend but it's also not OK to kill random black guys you don't know - even if they're in your bathroom. You call the police and you get the hell out of the house. So what I don't understand is why someone with an appeal hanging over them to get their crime upgraded to murder, suddenly gets to go home to Uncle. Isn't it more cruel to all concerned to give him a little bit of semi-freedom and then pull him back again if the appeal is successful? Would it not have made a lot more sense to wait for the outcome of the appeal before sending Oscar home? I don't want to be seen to criticise another country's systems but the only cases we see in the international media are the crazy ones - Oscar and Shrien Dewani being two classic examples.