Fate of Israeli soldier who killed wounded Palestinian in limbo
Tel Aviv, Aug. 7: The Israeli military has yet to decide whether to postpone the imprisonment of a soldier sentenced to 18 months for killing a wounded Palestinian, the army said Monday.
Elor Azaria applied on Sunday for a delay to his prison term. “No decision has yet been made,” an army spokeswoman said. On July 30, a military court rejected Azaria’s appeal against his conviction for manslaughter and upheld the prison term.
Azaria is expected to present himself to the authorities on Wednesday to begin serving his sentence unless the postponement request is upheld.
The March 2016 shooting in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron was caught on video by a rights group and spread widely online.
It showed Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, lying wounded on the ground, shot along with another Palestinian after stabbing and wounding a soldier, according to the Army.
Azaria then shot him in the head without any apparent provocation. He said he feared Sharif was wearing an explosive belt and could blow himself up, a claim judges rejected.
A number of Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have spoken out in favour of him being pardoned.
Passing an 18-month sentence, the court said Azaria, whom it demoted to the rank of private, had “taken upon himself to be both judge and executioner” and had not expressed regret for his crime.
But it said it was passing a lighter sentence than requested partly because it had been Azaria's first combat experience and his record had been unblemished up until then. Nonetheless, Ilan Katz, one of Azaria's defense attorneys, said they would appeal the manslaughter conviction. — Agencies