The Israeli army chief of staff said he would seriously consider easing the 18-month sentence of Elor Azaria a soldier whose manslaughter conviction was upheld in a military court sometime earlier.
According to the Hebrew-speaking Channel 2 Israel’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said reducing Azaria’s verdict does not entail that he would be acquitted.
In February an Israeli military court in Tel Aviv issued a ruling of a manslaughter conviction and an 18-month prison sentence for Azaria who in March 2016 shot dead an incapacitated Palestinian anti-occupation youth who allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli soldier.
Immediately following the court’s announcement politicians and public figures including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman called for Azaria to be pardoned.
In his statement Eisenkot said “if Azaria decides to file a request for a reduced sentence it will be seriously considered along with a review of the other considerations related to this case.”
On January 4 a military court found Azaria who recently completed his military service guilty of manslaughter. In addition to the 18-month sentence the court also ruled that he would be demoted to private.
Speaking outside the courtroom at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv chief prosecutor Lt. Col. Nadav Weissman pointed out that two courts composed of eight different judges all found Azaria guilty.
The divisive case had revealed deep rifts in Israeli society with some seeing Azaria as a hero while to others—the majority—he is a criminal.
