An Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday in the deadly shooting of a badly wounded Palestinian attacker, capping a nine-month saga that has deeply divided the country.
The verdict, which marks an extremely rare case of an Israeli military court convicting a soldier for lethal action taken in the field, threatened to deepen the rift. Military commanders have condemned the soldier’s conduct while much of the public, along with leading members of the nationalist ruling coalition, have rallied behind him.
With Sergeant Elor Azaria’s sentencing believed to be weeks away, the country faces a heated debate over whether he deserves clemency.
Within minutes of the verdict, leading politicians were already calling for him to be pardoned. Under Israeli law, the country’s largely ceremonial president has the authority to issue a pardon.
Azaria, an Israeli army medic, was caught on video in March last year fatally shooting a wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The Palestinian, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, was lying on the ground and already unarmed when Azaria shot him in the head.
In delivering the verdict, which lasted about three hours, Colonel Maya Heller, head of a three-judge panel, rejected Azaria’s defense in painstaking detail.
She said there was no evidence to support his contradictory claims that the attacker was already dead or that he posed any threat at the time, telling him he “couldn’t have both sides of the stick.”
She called his testimony “unreliable” and said he “needlessly” shot the assailant.
“We found there was no room to accept his arguments,” she said. “His motive for shooting was that he felt the terrorist deserved to die.”
Azaria faces a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars, though he is not expected to receive that much time.
The military said he would be sentenced on Jan. 15.
The defense team said it would appeal.
The 20-year-old Azaria entered the court smiling and appearing confident, and he was embraced by a few dozen relatives and friends.
However, as the verdict was delivered, he stared gloomily ahead and tensions quickly boiled over in the cramped, crowded courtroom.
Members of Azaria’s family clapped sarcastically as the decision was delivered, some screaming “Our hero.”
A female relative was kicked out of the courtroom for screaming at the judges and a second woman stormed out, shouting, “Disgusting leftists.”
After the judges walked out, Azaria’s mother, Oshra, screamed, “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Azaria tried to comfort her and calm her as she wailed.
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