JOHANNESBURG — A judge on Thursday eased the unusually tight bail restrictions on Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee Olympic runner who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Feb. 14 in one of the most sensational cases in South Africa’s recent judicial history.

Ms. Steenkamp’s body was found in a locked bathroom at Mr. Pistorius’s home in a gated compound in Pretoria, the South African capital. Prosecutors accused him of killing her in an act of premeditated murder.

But defense lawyers depicted the shooting as a tragic accident when Mr. Pistorius, 26, believed an intruder had entered his upscale home where Ms. Steenkamp, 29, a model and a law school graduate, was spending the night, and fired through the bathroom door.

She was hit by at least three bullets.

The prosecution had argued that Mr. Pistorius should not get bail because he could flee the country and had a history of violence. But on Feb. 22, a Pretoria magistrate, Desmond Nair, rejected these arguments, saying that Mr. Pistorius did not represent a flight risk and was not likely to interfere with state witnesses.