Report: IDF MAG to seek 3 to 5 year sentence for Azaria

Azaria was convicted on January 4 for manslaughter in the March 24, 2015 killing of Palestinian attacker Abdel Fatah al-Sharif, and sentencing arguments are set for his case for January 24.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Updated: JANUARY 20, 2017 00:04
A supporter of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who is charged with manslaughter by the Israeli military, wears a shirt depicting Azaria with the words in Hebrew "Bringing the light back to Elor" during a protest outside the military court in Tel Aviv on the verdict day for the soldier, Tel Aviv, Israel (photo credit: REUTERS)
A supporter of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who is charged with manslaughter by the Israeli military, wears a shirt depicting Azaria with the words in Hebrew "Bringing the light back to Elor" during a protest outside the military court in Tel Aviv on the verdict day for the soldier, Tel Aviv, Israel
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The IDF Magistrate Advocate- General will seek a threeto- five year prison sentence for Hebron shooter Sgt. Elor Azaria for his manslaughter conviction, Channel 2 reported on Thursday.
The Jerusalem Post received indications that the report is likely accurate.
Azaria was convicted on January 4 of manslaughter in the March 24, 2015, killing of Palestinian attacker Abdel Fatah al-Sharif. Sentencing arguments are set for January 24.
The so-called Hebron shooter trial has divided the IDF and the country and drawn massive international attention, going to the crux of a debate within Israeli society of how young soldiers should respond to gray situations of Palestinian violence and whether Azaria was in a gray situation or killed Sharif out of revenge for Sharif’s having stabbed his friend.
In the March 24 incident, Sharif stabbed another soldier and friend of Azaria, and was then shot several times and fell to the ground, nearly motionless.
By the time Azaria arrived around 10 minutes later, the other IDF personnel in the area did not view Sharif as a concrete threat (even as some IDF personnel and many civilians viewed him as a potential threat), and Azaria’s job as a medic would have been to have merely attend to the wounded.
Instead, Azaria, on a video which went viral across the globe, shot Sharif in the head, killing him in a seemingly execution-style manner.
Though Azaria claimed self-defense, out of concern that Sharif would attack again with a knife or was wearing a concealed explosive vest, the Jaffa Military Court rejected all of his defenses as being invented after-the-fact and convicted him based on his original explanations of his shooting Sharif – that it was out of his revenge.